Mika Zibanejad’s playoff run is reaching historic proportions.
The Rangers’ superstar notched his 12th point in seven playoff games on Thursday night when he assisted Chris Kreider’s shorthanded goal in the second period that ties the game at one.
That tied a club record for the most points at this stage of the postseason.
He also has points in each of the Rangers’ games to open the postseason, with his seven-game point streak tying teammate Adam Fox and Alexei Kovalev’s 1994 run for the franchise’s fourth-longest streak to open the playoffs — behind just Mark Messier (13 games in 1994), Brian Leetch (9 games in 1994) and Ron Duguay (8 games in 1981).
The franchise playoff record for points in the postseason is held by Leetch, with 34 in 1993-94.
However, Zibanejad already holds the record for most points in a single postseason in a year where the Rangers did not make the Cup Final, with 24 two seasons ago.
Thursday marked Zibanejad’s ninth assist of this postseason to go with three goals.
In the second round so far, he has been near-unstoppable, with a starring performance in Game 1 that included two goals.
Zibanejad helped make the shorthanded goal happen on Thursday by taking the puck off Brent Burns and moving up ice before laying off a pass to Kreider for the finish.
While the run of play had gone against the Rangers to that point in the night, the goal tied the score at one and provided a much-needed break in Carolina’s momentum for the Rangers.