This Day in Hockey History – May 19, 2012 – Rangers Rookie’s Record

May 19, 2019

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For the 2011-12 Eastern Conference finals, the New York Rangers played the New Jersey Devils. They had finished the regular season in first and fourth place, respectively, of the Atlantic Division. One member of the Rangers’ team, Chris Kreider, did not play a single game in the NHL or AHL during the regular season. Still, he scored in all of the first three games of the conference finals. With his goal on May 19, 2012, he set a NHL record for most goals scored in the playoffs for someone who had not yet played in a regular-season game.

After being drafted by the Rangers in the first round of the 2009 draft, Kreider played for the Boston College Eagles. In 2010, he scored a goal that helped the Eagles win the national championship, and his six goals helped the U.S. win gold in the World Junior Championship. The following year, he essentially repeated both feats with Boston College winning another NCAA championship and the U.S. winning bronze. Signing an entry-level contract, Kreider joined the Rangers on the ice in Game 3 of the first round of playoffs.

Kreider began his postseason scoring in Game 6, held at Ottawa on April 23. His ended up being the game-winner when the Rangers won 3-2. That tied up the series forcing Game 7, which the Rangers won. In Game 1 of the second round, on April 28, Kreider again scored the game-winner. The home crowd at Madison Square Garden witnessed the Rangers win 3-1. New York managed to win all the odd-numbered games in that series to eliminate the Washington Capitals in seven games.

For the conference finals, Game 1 (on May 14) and Game 3 (on May 19) played out almost exactly the same. Both featured the Rangers winning 3-0 with Kreider scoring the second goal in each. They scored all goals in the third period. The major difference was that the first was played at home and the second at the Prudential Center. The former attracted the slightly larger crowd of 18,200 compared to 17,625.

In both games, defenseman Dan Girardi scored first early in the third period. According to Girardi, “We’re just fortunate some of our shots are going in right now. Eventually, the forwards, there’s going to be offense from them. It’s just the way it’s going right now.”

Then along came Kreider. In Game 1, it took about 11 minutes before he scored on a power play. For Game 3, his goal came less than two minutes after Girardi’s. Teammate Ryan McDonagh sent a shot toward the net that Kreider helpfully tipped in at 5:16. Kreider commented, “I was just trying to get to the net. It was a great shot and found my stick.” He had also scored in Game 2 and said he’d trade those three goals for three wins.

With his five goals (and two assists), Kreider had the most postseason goals and points of any NHLer yet to play during the regular season. Montreal’s Eddie Mazur previously held the record, having scored two goals in the 1951-52 postseason and two goals and two assists in the 1952-53 postseason before playing his first regular-season game in 1953-54. “It’s pretty cool. I’m surrounded by some pretty good players. I knew I could polish off some of the chances they’ve been giving me. I’ve been really lucky,” said Kreider.

Both Game 1 and Game 3 ended with goals on the empty net. Artem Anisimov finished off the former at 18:33. To finish Game 3, Captain Ryan Callahan scored an empty-netter at 17:47. The crowd really began chanting, “Let’s go Ran-gers!”

New York netminder Henrik Lundqvist had shut out the Devils twice. Lundqvist commented after Game 3, “I was a little lucky today, a couple times where I made the first move I still ended up making the save. That’s not going to happen all the time. So you need some luck sometimes. I always say you earn your luck by working hard. But today was a good day.” Teammate McDonagh remained cautious, “We’ve got Hankie making saves for us, but we have to stay with our structure and believe in it, like we did today. When we’re working as five out there, it’s tough to stop us.” Girardi praised, “He’s been the backbone of our team for a long time now. He’s making huge saves.”

Rangers Coach John Tortorella said after Game 3, “I’m not sure how far we go, I’m not sure what goes on from here, but it’s a team that stays with it. We still have things to improve on, but there’s no panic. We know who we are. We know how we have to play.” Despite this, the Rangers ultimately lost the next three games and thus the series. Throughout the postseason, the Rangers had the pattern that they won Game 1, lost Game 2, and won Game 3. In the first two rounds, they won Game 7, but they failed to do so in the conference finals. The Devils went on to lose the Stanley Cup finals to the Los Angeles Kings. Two seasons later, in 2014, the Rangers made it to the Stanley Cup finals, but they too lost to the Kings.