Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins faceoff for Game 7 of their Round 2 best-of-seven series as part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The game can be live streamed for free here. New York fans can hear all of the action on WEPN 98.7 while Pittsburgh fans can do the same on 105.9 WXDX.
New York looks to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in three years and to continue its recent streak of winning Game 7s while Pittsburgh attempts to notch their second consecutive trip to the Eastern Conference Finals and to not blow a 3-1 series lead for the second time in four years.
The Rangers took Game 1 on the road before the Penguins rattled off three straight wins to take a 3-1 series lead. The Blueshirts roared back with two straight wins in Games 5 and 6 to nod the series up and the team will now look for its third win in this series at Consol Energy Center.
Pittsburgh has lost two straight Game 7s, including in 2011 when they lost the decider at home to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who came back from a 3-1 series deficit to advance. The Pens won two Game 7s in their run to the Stanley Cup in 2009.
New York is 3-0 in elimination games this postseason and has won four straight Game 7s. The team has never won a series after trailing 3-1, and only forced a Game 7 once in franchise history when trailing 3-1, which they lost in 7 back in 1939.
After outscoring the Pens 8-1 in the last two elimination games, the Rangers are taking a confident approach.
"Certainly you win two in a row and you feel good about yourself going into it, but it's a Game 7 and anything can happen," Rangers defenseman Marc Staal said via NHL.com. "You have to make sure you're confident and playing your best, then the chips fall where they may."
The Penguins are happy to have home ice, but they'll have to keep cool heads after captain Sidney Crosby showed some frustration at the end of Game 6.
"I think we look at it as basically we didn't help ourselves with the last two games we played and I don't think we look at the whole picture," Crosby told NHL.com. "I think we look at responding, and this is an opportunity. We worked hard all year to get home ice."
Crosby has just one goal this postseason, but has added eight assists to tie for second on the team with nine points in the playoffs along with Jussi Jokinen (six goals, three assists) and Matt Niskanen (two tallies, seven helpers). Evgeni Malkin has paced the team with 13 points by finding the twine six times and adding seven assists.
The Rangers have three players atop the score sheet this postseason with eight points as Mats Zuccarello, Benoit Pouliot and Brad Richards each have three goals and five assists apiece.
The team has gotten an emotional spark from Martin St. Louis (3-4--7), who scored the opening goal in the team's Game 6 win on Mother's Day just days after his mother, France, passed away. Derick Brassard (4-3--7) has been solid for the Blueshirts, notching four goals in this series and three in his last two games.
In net, New York turns to Henrik Lundqvist, who was fined $5,000 for spraying his water bottle in the face of Crosby during a scrum in the second period. Lundqvist is 7-6 this postseason with a 2.07 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage. In the last four Game 7s, Lundqvist has posted a 0.75 GAA and .973 save percentage.
Pittsburgh counters with Marc-Andre Fleury, who is 7-5 with a 2.43 GAA and a .916 save percentage this postseason.
An Eastern Conference Finals trip is on the line when the Rangers and Penguins hit the ice at the Consol Energy Center tonight in Pittsburgh as part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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