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After the New York Rangers 2-1 series opening victory over their rival Penguins, the Penguins (and Sidney Crosby) have shown they’re back and awake again.
Crosby managed to score twice, and the Penguins pulled their first-round playoff series even with the New York Rangers in Saturday night’s 4-3 win.
The New York Rangers managed to win the first game by ensuring Evgeni Malkin stayed out of the danger zone and Crosby was virtually invisible. The second time around, both players (plus the Penguins overall) showed some jump, taking possession of the puck and ensuring New York stayed off-balance. The Penguins shut down New York’s power play, forced turnovers in a decisive second period, and controlled the pace — in other words, they got even.
Star Penguin center put it this way: playing well is “all you want,” and they wanted to make sure “we went home with one.”
Crosby was at the middle of the turnaround of course. He broke through an initial 1-1 tie, knocking a rebound from Patric Hornqvist in during the second period. Then he dived and deflected a pass off Chris Kuniz past Henrik Lundqvist after the Rangers gave it away in their zone.
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That brought Crosby to four shots on the goal overall in the series, two of which went in.
The next game will be Monday in Pittsburgh. The New York Rangers held the best road record for the season and won the Presidents Cup for best record overall.
Derek Stepan pointed out key to the playoffs is being able to play both at home and on the road. They’ll be making sure they “get ourselves refocused” and ready for Game 3. Fans with the Rangers tickets will be hoping they do.
Of course, the Rangers haven’t won a Game 2 at home since they beat Vancouver in the finals for the 1994 Stanley Cup.
For the Penguins, Marc-Andre Fleury managed to finish with some 23 saves. Lundqvist brought home 18.
The Rangers still managed to get back in the game in the early part of the third period with — surprisingly enough — a previously teetering power play. Derick Brassard knocked a rebound in from short range, coming off strong pressure, and with Blake Comeau having been penalized early on in the third.
Then just under three minutes after that, Derek Stepan struck the goal post in the first shot on another power play. Carl Hagelin and Martin St. Louis both failed to get at a loose puck in the crease behind Fleury while they killed a penalty.
The same power play saw Kunitz bring the score to 4-2, as he swept in the rebound from Sutter’s short shot.
Penguins coach told reporters after that he felt their second power-play unit ended up being effective for them “when it was out there.”
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Rick Nash managed to score for New York with just 5.1 seconds to in the game, but it wasn’t enough.
The New York Rangers had managed to open up scoring during the first period. Fleury had robbed Stepan from the slot, but during the next New York rush Miller was fed by McDonagh on left wing, and a perfect pass to almost exactly the same point in the slot reached Stepan in stride. This time Stepan beat Fleury to the post, one of just three New York shots that period.
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