Sidney Crosby’s deflection past Henrik Lundqvist with 29.5 seconds remaining in overtime ended a terrific back and forth battle between two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference Sunday night at Madison Square Garden as the Rangers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2.
The loss snapped New York’s three-game-winning streak, while the Penguins have now won eight of their last nine games to move within three points of the Rangers for second place in the Metropolitan Division.
“I feel good about the way we played, it was a good game,” said Lundqvist who finished with 29 saves. “There’s a big possibility that this is the team we are going to face (in the first round of the playoffs) and it’s a pretty tight match up. We still have some big games left that we have to focus on; but tonight was a real good hockey game.”
Crosby’s game-winner was his team-leading 32nd goal of the season, and was a perfect deflection of a Kris Letang shot from inside the blue line. The goal came after the Rangers had killed off a Penguins power play. Derick Brassard had been penalized for high sticking with just 1.4 seconds to play in regulation so New York was forced to begin the overtime on a 4-on-3 disadvantage.
“After we get such a great (penalty) kill, it was a tough way to lose,” stated alternate captain Marc Staal, who recorded three of New York’s 26 blocked shots on Sunday. “I thought it was a pretty even game, both teams were battling hard, it was just unfortunate it didn’t go our way in the end there.”
Eric Staal scored both Rangers goals for his first two-goal performance while wearing the Blueshirt since being acquired from Carolina on February 28. Both of his linemates, Kevin Hayes and Jesper Fast, contributed a pair of assists to the Blueshirts effort.
“It would have been nice to have those goals to help with a win,” said Staal, who recorded four shots on goal and attempted a total of eight on Sunday. “It’s been obviously at times a little bit of an offensive struggle for me, but I’m starting to feel a little bit better. We just want wins and points, and then we want to feel good going into the playoffs. That’s the main thing.”
The Rangers and Penguins traded a goal apiece in each of the first two periods and reached the second intermission tied 2-2, with New York holding a slight 22-21 advantage in shots.
Staal started the Rangers off on the right foot by scoring just 4:19 into the game on a terrific effort on his part and off a beautiful lead pass from Hayes. Staal scooted down the middle towards the net and with only one hand on his stick was able to redirect Hayes’ perfectly-placed pass up and over Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
Pittsburgh answered back at 15:49 of the first when Matt Cullen tipped a Derrick Pouliot left wing shot off Lundqvist and just over the goal line. Even though the Rangers had slightly the better of the play in the first period, with a few more scoring chances and shots, they skated into the dressing room tied 1-1.
However, like they did in the opening period, the Rangers started the second period with a bang, grabbing a 2-1 lead on Staal’s second of the night, third as a Ranger, and 13th of the season at the 2:07 mark. This time Fast knocked the puck off a Penguins stick 20-feet from Pittsburgh’s net. The puck slid to Staal at the bottom of the right circle and he wired a shot past Fleury as New York regained the lead.
“He’s been around the net, been getting chances the last week, and been a little frustrated it hasn’t been going in for him, but I think it definitely takes some pressure off of him seeing a couple of goals go into the back of the net,” Marc Staal said of brother Eric. “Him scoring like that is also a huge boost for our team.”
Energized by his two goals, Staal confidently set about generating scoring chances with his linemates the rest of the period. He came close to recording a Hat Trick at 13:05 of the second, but was denied one on one down low as Fleury made a clutch pad save.
The scoring opportunity was set up on a neat passing sequence in which Hayes swung a behind the back pass to Marc Staal just inside the Penguins blue line and Staal found big brother Eric alone by the Penguins crease.
“I thought Haysie’s line was real good tonight,” said Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault. “They generated most of our opportunities and scoring chances.”
While Staal was the Rangers best player in the second, Phil Kessel was in the midst of an impressive period for Pittsburgh, as well. Coming off a career-best five-point effort in Saturday’s 7-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings, Kessel tied the score, 2-2, at 8:36 of the second burying the rebound of a Carl Hagelin bad-angle shot after Lundqvist came out of his net to play the puck and mistakenly put it on to the stick of his former teammate in the left-wing corner.
A minute after tying the game, Kessel nearly gave the Penguins their first lead when he stripped Rick Nash of the puck in the Rangers defensive zone and proceeded to rip a right wing shot short side off the post. Later in the period Kessel turned on the jets and flew past Ryan McDonagh on right wing forcing Lundqvist into a difficult save.
In the third period Lundqvist and Fleury traded some big saves to keep the score tied. At 6:49 Pittsburgh’s Patric Hornqvist found himself alone and whisked an in-close backhand shot on net which Lundqvist denied with his pads; and two minutes later Staal generated another great scoring chance for New York with a crushing hit in the corner which caused a turnover, and then followed with a slick dish to Fast whose one-timer was stopped by a sharp Fleury.
The Penguins outshot New York 9-5 in the third period, and Lundqvist made two solid saves on separate excellent scoring chances for Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang in the latter half of the period.
New York was unable to generate a shot on goal during overtime, and with the loss they fell to 1-2-1 this season against the Penguins.
The Rangers will have three days off to begin this week and then will travel to Raleigh for Thursday’s game against the Hurricanes, Eric Staal’s first against his former team.
Jim Cerny
BlueshirtsUnited.com
