Rangers fans go wild at Madison Square Garden watch party as New York advances to Eastern Conference Finals

Rangers fans went into delirium during the team's Game 6 viewing party at Madison Square Garden, as New York prevented the Carolina Hurricanes from making a come back to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. 

On Thursday, thousands of fans wearing red, white and blue watched their team on the Garden's jumbotron with many bouncing around the arena after New York edged out the Hurricanes 5-3 in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

The occasion marked the first time that the Rangers make the Eastern Conference Finals since the 2021-2022 season.

New York went from cruising through the NHL playoffs with an unbeaten record to suddenly struggling to close out a second-round series despite having a huge lead (3-0) before Carolina won two games in a row.

Worse, the Rangers found themselves down entering the third period with the prospect of having to play a Game 7.

Instead, Chris Kreider took over to ensure the Presidents' Trophy winners finally closed out the Hurricanes.

Kreider had a third-period hat trick to help the Rangers erase a two-goal deficit, a stunning reversal after their postseason momentum had gone decidedly in the wrong direction.

'We talk about being a resilient group and a competitive group,' Kreider said, 'and I think we showed that tonight.'

Kreider single-handedly erased the Hurricanes' 3-1 lead entering the final period. The go-ahead score came when he got position on Jalen Chatfield at the top of the crease and tipped in Ryan Lindgren's pass to make it 4-3 with at the 15:41 mark.

That made Kreider the third Rangers player to score three goals in a series-clinching game and first since Mike Gartner in 1990. It was also reminiscent of famed captain Mark Messier's 'guarantee' game in 1994, when he had a third-period hat trick in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final against New Jersey after promising the Rangers would force a seventh game. The Rangers went on to win the series and their most recent Stanley Cup title that season.

'We just had to go out there and make a decision in the third period,' said Vincent Trocheck, a former Hurricane who scored the Rangers' first goal on a second-period deflection. 'Either show up and play and be a part of the series, or don't. I think we had 20 guys show up in the third.'

Barclay Goodrow finished this one off by getting to a loose puck near the boards and scoring a long empty-net goal in the final minute, sending Goodrow to the nearby Rangers bench to be mobbed by teammates.

That sent the Rangers on to the Eastern Conference Final to face the Boston-Florida winner, with the Panthers leading that series 3-2.