NHL playoffs: Rangers and Flames advance after Game 7 overtime thrillers

Artemi Panarin scored a power-play goal 4:46 into overtime and the New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Sunday night to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“He’s the guy,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said of Panarin, “when it was heading into overtime, I said to myself, ‘I know he’s going to score if we score. If we get the winning goal, it’s going to be him.”

Mika Zibanejad had a goal and two assists, and Chris Kreider and K’Andre Miller also scored for New York, who clinched their third straight comeback win after trailing 3-1 in the series. Andrew Copp had two assists and Igor Shesterkin stopped 42 shots.

“It’s a huge win for the team, for the organization,” defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “A gutsy performance, coming back again. That whole ‘No Quit In New York’ thing is pretty true with this group.”

The Rangers are the first team in NHL playoff history to record three consecutive comeback wins in elimination games within the same series.

New York will play Carolina next. Game 1 is on Wednesday. The Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins in Game 7 on Saturday night.

Evan Rodrigues had a goal and an assist, and Jake Guentzel and Danton Heinen also scored for the Penguins, who were ousted in the first playoff series for the fourth straight year.

“Tonight, we’re on the wrong ends of some bounces,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “We played a great game tonight, we played some good hockey throughout the series. We didn’t get that next one tonight that was probably the difference but I think even when we had those leads we still played the right way. Tonight was an example of one game, anything can happen.”

Calgary Flames 3-2 Dallas Stars (OT)

In Sunday’s other Game 7, Johnny Gaudreau