MONTREAL — This was a twist on the old “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t,” for in this Game 5 on Thursday night, just when you became convinced you might never see Chris Kreider again make a play for the Rangers, there you saw No. 20 popping into the picture again and again and again.
“You stick with it. You persevere,” Kreider told The Post. “I’m not the only player to go through a tough time. You don’t put your head down. You make adjustments. You don’t let the valleys overwhelm you or demoralize you.
“You stay with it and trust that if you do, good things will happen.”
Kreider stayed with it, all right, playing his most formidable and assertive hockey of the series over the final 21:30 of this overtime Game 5, and the very best thing happened as a consequence. For when Kreider’s left circle drive was deflected to the right circle by Alexei Emelin — yep, Kid K and Emelin together again three years later — Mika Zibanejad jumped on the puck to beat Carey Price at 14:22 to lift the Blueshirts to a 3-2 win and within one victory of advancing to Round 2.
“Now we get ready,” Kreider said. “Now we get to go home and try to end it.”
The Rangers earned this, no doubt about it. After absorbing a pounding through nearly all of the lopsided first 40 minutes while somehow hanging on as opposed to merely hanging in or hanging around, the Blueshirts wrested control from the brawny Habs and never relinquished it.
This was a different team than the one that was overwhelmed through the final 40 minutes of their Game 2 overtime defeat last Friday. This team dictated terms in the third and then again in extra time, outshooting the Habs 10-3 in extra time while playing with poise and confidence.
The Blueshirts pressed for one shift after another while Henrik Lundqvist watched from his throne some 178 paces away from Price. The King watched … watched for the red light, all the while aware the momentum always could change at the drop of the Broadway Hat that was perched on top of Zibanejad’s head after No. 93 had ended it.
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Mika Zibanejads OT goal propels Rangers to pivotal Game 5 win
MONTREAL — It was the smallest smile and a nod…
Someone wanted to know if a goaltender could enjoy overtime.
“Not really,” said Lundqvist, who made a game-saving breakaway right pad save on Max Pacioretty coming straight down the chute with 7:12 remaining in the third of the 2-2 game. “You never think you have it no matter how many chances you are creating because you know that with one bounce everything can change.”
But it didn’t change, at least it didn’t change for the Rangers (or for the Canadiens) once Brady Skjei snuck low into the slot to convert a Rick Nash rebound at 18:28 of the second after Big 61 drove the net from the right corner — see, it’s allowed! — and forced Price to make a pad save. That’s when the game changed.
That’s when the Rangers dug in, played with poise and never allowed the Canadiens to regain the edge or, just as importantly, the swagger they had demonstrated through the first 38 minutes of the match.
“Rick is the figurehead for playing the right way,” Kreider said. “He sets the template for the rest of us.”
From the moment he joined the Rangers for the 2012 playoffs straight off the Boston College Chestnut Hill campus, Kreider consistently has been among the rare breed of player who elevates in the playoffs. But not this series, which had been the most inconsequential of a postseason career in which he had scored 20 goals in 65 matches heading into this tournament.
But after being rendered ineffective if not invisible through four games and most of the fifth, Kreider came alive beginning with a left-wing dash that culminated with a wrist shot 7:10 into the third. He and linemates Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich were on the puck consistently after that.
“I made a simple adjustment to get on top of the puck and that allowed me to use my speed,” Kreider said. “Before that it was, ‘low and go slow.’”
Kreider had a glorious chance to end it from the right doorstep at 9:50 of overtime after a relay from Buchnevich to Zibanejad landed flush on his stick blade. But down to one knee, Kreider fanned on it.
“You know what? Price was there! He was there! That’s why I went down to one knee. I was trying to get it up over him,” Kreider said. “But that’s a bad job by me. I have to make him make a save. Come on.”
But No. 20 didn’t get down. For so long you didn’t see him. And then you did, like Kreider was Houdini, who by the way, never set up an overtime game-winner in his life.