Rangers Fall, 5-3, To Penguins at The Garden
With the game tied and time winding down in the third period, Pittsburgh's Matt Cullen threw a pass from behind the Rangers net out towards the slot and the puck banked off Rangers' defenseman Marc Staal and over the goal line to put New York in a 4-3 hole at 11:09.
That fluky goal was the Penguins answer to Ryan McDonagh's highlight-reel score six minutes earlier which had brought the Rangers back and tied the score. After a solid passing sequence up ice by J.T. Miller and Jesper Fast, McDonagh jetted up left wing with the puck, leaving Pittsburgh defenders in his wake. The Rangers captain then sped behind the Penguins cage and beat goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury with a wraparound goal, his ninth of the season, at 5:04 of the third.
Sidney Crosby's empty net goal with 38.8 seconds remaining in regulation closed out the scoring.
Despite playing fewer than 24 hours before in Detroit, the Rangers came out flying in the first period Sunday, and only Fleury's brilliance between the pipes for Pittsburgh stood in their way of pulling away early and often in this one. Instead, despite registering 19 shots on goal, the Rangers found themselves in a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes of play; and when they followed up their great start with a dismal second period, the Blueshirts skated into the second intermission trailing 3-2.
Fleury was exceptionally sharp right from the get go, forced into making four tough saves on one shift less then two minutes into the game. The Derick Brassard line created plenty of havoc on its first shift of the afternoon, with Fast being denied in close on a pair of prime scoring chances.
That set the tone for the first period as the Rangers did an excellent job of dictating play and getting to the net, only to be frustrated by the extremely sharp Fleury, who calmly poked the puck off Chris Kreider's stick on a breakaway five minutes into the contest, and a couple minutes later made a pair of big saves on Rick Nash from in tight during a Rangers power play.
New York--due in large part to Fleury--failed to score with 32 seconds of a two-man advantage early in the first. All of these missed opportunities added up and were the more frustrating when Pittsburgh's Patric Hornqvist banked a bad-angle shot off the back of Lundqvist for a power play goal at 11:56 of the opening period.
The Rangers did pull even before the period was over as Kreider camped out by the blue paint and redirected a slick Derek Stepan pass into the cage with 1:54 remaining in the first. Kevin Klein--who earlier in the shift launched Hornqvist partially over the boards with a neat check--slipped a pass between a defender's legs to Stepan in the right circle, and Stepan proceeded to also sneak a pass between a pair of Penguins legs to the wide-open Kreider.
The goal was Kreider's 16th of the season, second in as many games, and fifth in the last nine matches. With the assist Stepan extended his scoring streak to five consecutive games.
Despite tying the score and carrying play for most of the opening period, the Rangers could not get much going in period number two. Lundqvist faced higher quality scoring opportunities, making a clutch pad save after Olli Maata broke in alone at 4:36 and then later coming through with three stops in succession with Hornqvist on the doorstep at 10:49.
Pittsburgh's Conor Sheary, though would score twice in the period, the first two-goal game of his young NHL career, at 7:30 and 15:55. The second of his goals came on a breakaway with a quick forehand snap shot to finish.
Sheary's goals sandwiched a power play goal by Brassard at 8:59. After Stepan won a face off in the right circle, Keith Yandle slid a pass to Brassard whose slap shot ticked off Maata's stick and changed direction on its way to passing a screened Fleury. For Brassard, who was back in the lineup after missing Saturday's action due to the flu, the goal was his team-leading 25th of the season and extended his point scoring streak to four straight game
NY RANGERS 3 PIT PENGUINS 5
SOG: NYR 27 PIT 33
Scoring Summary
1st Period
11:56 PIT PPG - Patric Hornqvist (18) Wrist shot - ASST: Sidney Crosby (40), Kris Letang (40) 1 - 0 PIT
18:06 NYR Chris Kreider (16) Tip-in - ASST: Derek Stepan (21), Kevin Klein (9) 1 - 1 Tie
2nd Period
07:30 PIT Conor Sheary (4) Tip-in - ASST: Justin Schultz (9) 2 - 1 PIT
08:59 NYR PPG - Derick Brassard (25) Slapshot - ASST: Keith Yandle (35), Derek Stepan (22) 2 - 2 Tie
15:55 PIT Conor Sheary (5) Snap shot - ASST: Tom Kuhnhackl (3), Eric Fehr (3) 3 - 2 PIT
3rd Period
05:04 NYR Ryan McDonagh (9) Wrap-around - ASST: Jesper Fast (15), J.T. Miller (18) 3 - 3 Tie
11:09 PIT Matt Cullen (11) Deflected shot - ASST: Dominik Simon (1), Brian Dumoulin (15) 4 - 3 PIT
19:21 PIT EN - Sidney Crosby (29) Wrist shot - ASST: Tom Kuhnhackl (4), Bryan Rust (5) 5 - 3 PIT
Penalty Summary
1st Period
04:13 PIT Olli Maatta Hi-sticking - 2 min against Rick Nash
05:41 PIT Ian Cole Delaying Game-Puck over glass - 2 min against Derick Brassard
11:18 NYR J.T. Miller Holding the stick - 2 min against Trevor Daley
19:38 NYR Ryan McDonagh Hooking - 2 min against Bryan Rust
2nd Period
08:52 PIT Patric Hornqvist Tripping - 2 min against Eric Staal
17:24 NYR Mats Zuccarello Slashing - 2 min against Ian Cole
3rd Period
00:01 NYR Chris Kreider Fighting (maj) - 5 min against Chris Kunitz
00:01 PIT Chris Kunitz Fighting (maj) - 5 min against Chris Kreider
02:19 PIT Eric Fehr Slashing - 2 min against Derick Brassard
02:19 NYR Derick Brassard Slashing - 2 min against Eric Fehr
05:36 PIT Ian Cole Slashing - 2 min against Rick Nash
Final Team stats
Category PIT NYR
Power Plays 1/3 1/4
Hits 20 25
Faceoff Wins 23 28
Giveaways 12 19
Takeaways 5 10
Blocked Shots 16 18
Penalty Minutes 15 13
Three Stars of the Game
1. PIT Conor Sheary
2. NYR Derek Stepan
3. PIT Matt Cullen
NEXT GAME
The Rangers travel West to Start a 3 game West Coast Swing starting in Anaheim vs the Ducks Wednesday March 16th at 10:30 PM.
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