Rangers' year in review: Chris Kreider's heroics an all-time moment

All season long, the Rangers kept finding different, inventive, improbable ways to win games, ultimately piling up a league-high and franchise-record 55 victories en route to winning the Presidents’ Trophy.

But they were in a pickle late in Game 6 of their second-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes, down 3-1 in the third period on the road against the betting favorite to win the Stanley Cup. They had led the series 3-0 but had lost the last two games and now were less than 15 minutes away from Game 7.

The pressure was on. Four previous NHL teams had blown a 3-0 lead and lost a best-of-seven playoff series, and the Rangers were in danger of becoming No. 5.

That’s when Chris Kreider stepped out of a phone booth, turned into Superman and saved the day.

Kreider, the longest-tenured Ranger, scored a natural hat trick in the third period to lead the Rangers to a 5-3 victory, powering them past the stunned Hurricanes and into the Eastern Conference Final.

After it was over, Kreider was asked to confirm what his teammates had said in the locker room, that he’d told them during the second intermission that he believed he would score.

“I dunno,’’ he said. “I just think as we raised our level, we started getting pucks to the net. I just tried to get there.’’

Teammate Vincent Trocheck, who was sitting next to him, was having none of it.

“I think he did,’’ Trocheck interjected.

Kreider had missed practice the day before Game 6 because of what the team called “maintenance,’’ a euphemism for some sort of minor injury or soreness. He was in the lineup for Game 6, but no one could be sure how effective he would be.

Kreider started the epic comeback when he jammed in the rebound of Mika Zibanejad's shot at 6:43 of the third period to make it 3-2. That gave the Rangers life, and what followed seemed inevitable: The Rangers got a power play, and though they had been ice-cold with the man advantage in the previous three games, they scored on this one, with Kreider tipping in a shot by Artemi Panarin to make it 3-3 at 11:54.

The outcome no longer was in doubt after that. Kreider banged in Ryan Lindgren’s cross-crease feed with 4:19 left to complete his hat trick and give the Rangers their first lead at 4-3. Barclay Goodrow scored an empty-net goal in the final minute to make it official.

Mark Messier's hat trick that delivered the win he'd guaranteed in Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Final against the Devils probably remains the greatest individual performance in Rangers history. And Stephane Matteau's double-OT wraparound winner in Game 7 two nights later probably tops the list for greatest moments.

But given the stakes, Kreider's third-period hat trick against Carolina surely belongs on the short list of great all-time games by a Ranger. And it would be high up on that list, too.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.