In the second period, Zibanejad was responsible for the preparatory work for the 4-2 goal when he first captured the puck from Alex Ovechkin in a box play, interacted with Chris Kreider and then passed the puck to an onrushing K’Andre Miller who in a free position put the puck into the roof of the net .
It was the 13th time in his career that Zibanejad has scored more than one point in a playoff game, which is tied for fifth best in Rangers history with Kreider and Walt Tkaczuk.
Zibanejad is an important component of Rangers’ special teams. He showed that not least during the regular season, where he scored 12 of his 26 goals on the power play and scored six points (2+4) in a numerical disadvantage.
– Mika has been great for us all season, but especially these last two games (in the playoffs), says Miller. He does everything for us. He plays power play, box play, five on five, protects leads at the end of games and sets the tone for us at the beginning. He does everything that is asked of him and he is a special player for us. We are lucky to have him on our team.
– We have been good at putting pressure on them in their power play, says Zibanejad. When we get that game going and shrink the spaces we are difficult to play and there are even opportunities to go for it and create goalscoring opportunities for ourselves. Today we scored a goal in a numerical disadvantage, which was nice.
