Flyers goalie Steve Mason was brilliant, but the Rangers scored on two perfect shots, from Daniel Carcillo and Benoit Pouliot.

Henrik Lundqvist, who had been up and down in this series, made 26 saves to run his career record in Game 7s to 4-1, and his career save percentage in those games to .963.

But he and the Rangers had to endure a late Flyers surge after Jason Akeson cut the deficit to 2-1 early in the third period.

The outcome was in doubt until three seconds remained when Mats Zuccarello won an icing race.

The first manifestation of the Garden’s Game 7 mystique came when Zuccarello’s spinning backhand pass from the right-wing boards somehow found its way through the skates of two Flyers defensemen.

The puck went right to the stick of Carcillo, who tipped it past Mason at 3 minutes 6 seconds of the second period and gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Carcillo had just come out of the penalty box, where he was serving a bench minor for too many men on the ice. It was his second goal of the series, both scored after he came out of the penalty box.

Carcillo had been a healthy scratch the two previous games, but Coach Alain Vigneault inserted him into the lineup because of his previous playoff experience with the Flyers and with the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.