Rangers takeaways from Saturday’s 5-2 Game 6 win over Devils, includin…

The Rangers forced a deciding game in their first-round series with the Devils, beating New Jersey, 5-2, in Game 6 Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.

Mika Zibanejad, who had not scored in the series, tallied the goal that put the Rangers ahead for good in the second period. The Blueshirts, who switched up some attacking lines, also got goals from Chris Kreider (yes, again), Vladimir Tarasenko, Barclay Goodrow and Braden Schneider.

Igor Shesterkin, the main reason the Rangers made a deep playoff run last year, was brilliant in goal, making 34 saves. Entering Saturday, the Rangers had allowed the fewest goals per game of any playoff team.

The series now heads to a winner-moves-on Game 7 in Newark on Monday. The Rangers’ Game 6 victory, in front of a sellout crowd of 18,006, was their only one at home in the series.

Here are the key takeaways:

-The Rangers made a habit last year of staving off elimination. They won five elimination games before getting bounced in the Eastern Conference Finals by Tampa Bay. The Rangers are trying to win a seven-game playoff series they trailed, 3-2, for the eighth time in franchise history.

-Entering Saturday night, Jersey goalie Akira Schmid had stopped 80-of-82 shots in the series and was a large part of why the Devs had won three in a row. But the Rangers finally solved the 22-year-old Switzerland native, one game after he had shut them out, and he did not finish the game. In the third period, Schmid gave up goals to Goodrow and Schneider – the first of the playoffs for both – and the goalie was pulled with 7:32 left in favor of Vitek Vanecek, who had started and lost the first two games of the series. Goalie controversy entering Game 7, anyone?

-Zibanejad, who poured in 39 goals during the season to lead the Rangers, had not scored in the series until he notched a tie-breaker with 9:50 left in the second. Kreider flicked a backhand pass from behind the net and Zibanejad beat Schmid to the goalie’s left. The crowd went…