Alain Vigneault allowed the smallest smile to cross his face, as this was a personal victory, as well as a team triumph.
Vigneault’s Rangers beat the Canadiens, 3-1, in Game 6 on Saturday night at the Garden to win their first-round series against his friend and counterpart, Claude Julien. Before the series, Vigneault said Julien “owed me one,” referring to the 2011 Stanley Cup finals, which Julien’s Bruins won in Game 7 against Vigneault’s Canucks.
“I said he owed me one,” Vigneault said after the win, “so it’s paid back now.”
Vigneault would give himself only a little time to revel in the series victory — which certainly was aided by the coach’s decision to insert Pavel Buchnevich in place of Tanner Glass in Game 4 — before moving on to preparing to face the winner of the Senators-Bruins series.
“I’m going to have a glass of wine tonight, maybe two,” Vigneault said, adding “never white” when asked what kind. “But starting [Sunday], we know it’s either Boston or Ottawa, and we’re going to start getting ready.”
The Rangers’ power play went 0-for-14 over the first five games of the series. But a second-period goal on the man-advantage from Mats Zuccarello tied the game 1-1 and changed the tide of the game.
“We caught their goalie cheating a little bit and we were able to get one in,” Vigneault said.
Now with a few days off and likely a few practices ahead, the Rangers hope to build some momentum on that one good play.
“We talk about timely saves and timely goals, how about a timely power-play goal?” Derek Stepan said. “That’s what our group continues to talk about, what an opportunity we have to make a difference on the power play.”
Rookie Jimmy Vesey continued to impress, not just with his skill and poise, but by never backing down from the physicality in this series, before or after the whistle.
Vesey got into his third NHL fight just 4:51 into the game, taking exception when Montreal captain Max Pacioretty cross-checked him in the face, dropping the gloves to square off in a bout that few could have expected. As Vesey went to the penalty box, Garden fans were chanting chanted his name.
“It was a good feeling. I had my jersey off,” Vesey said. “The crowd screaming my name was pretty cool.”
That edge wasn’t something Vesey was known for when he signed with the Rangers last summer as a free agent out of Harvard. But the Rangers knew it was there.
“I’ve always thought he’s playing with an edge,” Vigneault said. “The feedback that we got from our scouts who watched him and the guys that tried to convince him to come here was that he was a big-time player. He was good in the big games and the big moments. And he certainly had a good start to his first playoffs.”
Defenseman Kevin Klein and Glass were healthy scratches for the third straight game.