The Rangers had the game’s first power play a little more than five minutes into the game. Tarasenko got a pass from Kreider and fired a shot into the top right corner from between the circles with 1:35 remaining in the middle period. It ended Zibanejad’s 10-game goal-scoring drought and gave the Rangers their first lead since the second period of Game 3. Zibanejad then put the Rangers in front when he scored from the slot off a pass by Kreider from behind the goal line with 9:50 left in the second. The goalie also denied Timo Meier in the slot two minutes later to keep the score tied, 1-1. The Devils had several good shorthanded chances early in the second but Shesterkin stopped Mercer’s shot from the right side and Erik Haula’s backhand attempt on the rebound. Shesterkin stopped a tip try by Nathan Bastian with 2:22 left, and then had a stellar save on Nico Hischier’s point-blank attempt on the follow, drawing chants of “I-gor! I-gor!” from the Madison Square Garden crowd. The Devils pulled Vanecek again for an extra skater but came up empty this time around. With the Devils on a power play, they pulled goalie Vitek Vanecek with about 5½ minutes left for a 6-on-4 advantage and Mercer beat Shesterkin. Schneider then made it 5-1 when he got a pass from Niko Mikkola and fired a shot past Schmid with 7:32 left for his first career playoff goal. Jimmy Vesey fired a shot off Schmid’s pad and glove and Goodrow knocked the puck out of the air and in at 7:23 of the third period. New York opened a 4-1 lead on Goodrow’s first goal since March 12. But the Rangers closed it out after that stretch. Trailing, 3-1, the Devils had 14 consecutive shots on goal. Akira Schmid, who had stopped 80 of 82 shots over the previous three games, was pulled after giving up five goals on 29 shots. Curtis Lazar and Dawson Mercer scored for New Jersey.
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