from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

This was the goaltender who pushed Henrik Lundqvist to the bench for four straight games midway through the 2016-17 season, when such a thing had never ever been done before.

This was the goaltender who introduced himself to Rangerstown on the first day of training camp in 2015 by assuring everyone that he was not, “The biggest douchebag in the whole word.”

This was the goaltender who stole Game 1 of the conference semifinals on Wednesday night by holding his badly outplayed club in the match through the first 40 minutes until his teammates struck for the tying goal late in the third period before getting the winner early in overtime.

This was Antti Raanta, the 33-year-old Finn who has been a backup throughout almost all of his career, which included two seasons in New York, and who ascended to the No. 1 spot for Carolina when Freddie Andersen went down with a lower body injury on April 16.

“You’re always thinking, ‘Am I good enough to be playing these games?’, when you haven’t gotten the chance to play these, you know?” Raanta said after his sparkling performance allowed the Hurricanes, after a 2-1 victory on Ian Cole’s OT winner at 3:42, to get a 1-0 jump in the series. “You are always questioning yourself about, ‘What if I get the chance to play?’ ”

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Below are the game highlights.