New York Rangers coach John Tortorella said after Game 5 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals that he felt the Rangers “probably played our best game of the series tonight."
Unfortunately for Tortorella and the Rangers their “best game” was a 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils. That leaves New York in a 3-2 hole and facing elimination Friday night at New Jersey’s Prudential Center.
The Rangers climbed out of a 3-0 hole less than 10 minutes into the game to draw even at 3-3 early in the third period. They could not complete the comeback, however.
“We’ve been through it before,” Tortorella said. “And I know the guys are‑‑ it’s a hard one to lose the way we lost tonight, crawling back into it, but we’ll go through our day tomorrow. We’ll regroup. And, again, I have tremendous amount of confidence in how we’ll react to this.”
Tortorella said he “felt when we tied it, we stopped making plays.”
The Rangers have now lost the last two games to the Devils, and their season will be on the line Friday night in New Jersey.
“We’ve been here before,” Tortorella said. “We were here before earlier in the Playoffs. And so we’ll just take the next game. It’s all we’re looking for is our next game.”