Rangers win finale, will face Penguins in first round of playoffs

At last, the regular season is over for the Rangers and they can fully turn their attention to the playoffs. They will begin either Monday or Tuesday, and the Rangers will host Games 1 and 2 of their first-round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“I’m glad tonight’s over,’’ coach Gerard Gallant said after the Rangers closed out the regular season with a 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

Dryden Hunt’s sixth goal of the season broke a 2-2 tie at 6:42 of the third period and was the game-winner for the Rangers, who needed to survive a Washington power play with 2:24 remaining to close out the game and finish with a record of 52-24-6 (110 points).

Gallant, wrapping up his first season behind the bench for the Rangers, was happy with the final result but not pleased with the performance, which he said was “real sloppy.’’

“It hasn’t been that bad in two weeks,’’ Gallant said. “But when you clinch early and you’ve got a lot of games that, you know, you try and make them meaningful, but sometimes they’re hard. And tonight it was pretty sloppy. Anyway, it’s a nice way to finish with the win.’’

The Rangers didn’t know whom they would face in the playoffs when the game started.

They were locked into second place in the Metropolitan Division and were set to play the third-place finisher in the division, but that still was undetermined. Washington trailed Pittsburgh by one point when Friday’s games started, so for the Capitals to finish third, they would have had to beat the Rangers and have the Penguins lose to the Columbus Blue Jackets in Pittsburgh.

But the Penguins won, 5-3, to finish with 103 points. Washington, playing without the injured Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, lost its third straight game and finished with 100.

Mika Zibanejad, one of only two players, along with Chris Kreider, who were on the roster the last time the Rangers made the playoffs in 2017, looked a little drained after the game when he was asked to talk about what it meant to him to return to the playoffs after so many years.

“I think I’ve said this before, but it’s been a grind,’’ he said. “It’s been a couple long years and it’s definitely worth the wait. And to be back in the playoffs and looking at this group that we have, I’m super-happy I get to be a part of that, and to be part of the solution when everything happened. And I’m just really excited to get this going.’’

All five regulars Gallant rested in Wednesday’s loss to Montreal — Zibanejad, Kreider, Jacob Trouba, Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren — returned to the lineup Friday.

However, Artemi Panarin and Andrew Copp each missed his second straight game with upper- and lower-body injuries, respectively.

Gallant chose to start backup goaltender Alexandar Georgiev rather than Igor Shesterkin. He did that partly to guard against the possibility of an injury and partly to allow Shesterkin to get a little rest and more work in practice in preparation for Game 1 of the playoffs, he said.

Georgiev, who will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights when the season ends, likely played his final regular-season game in a Rangers uniform. With the contract extensions of Zibanejad and Fox kicking in next season, the Rangers are going to want to get a cheaper option to fill the backup goalie position behind Shesterkin.

Georgiev, who made 34 saves Friday and won eight of his last nine starts to finish 15-10-2, is going to want to find a team that can offer him more ice time than he got this season.

Filip Chytil (his eighth, at 3:26) and Alexis Lafreniere (his 19th, at 15:44) scored in the second period for the Rangers, sandwiched around goals by Washington’s Justin Schultz and John Carlson (on a power play) at 4:01 and 5:13.

Kaapo Kakko and Braden Schneider each had two assists for the Rangers.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.