Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden the Rangers were edged by the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 in a tightly-contested Game Three of their opening-round playoff series. The Rangers trail the best-of-seven two games to one with Game Four set for Thursday night in New York.
The Blueshirts lineup was bolstered Tuesday by the return of team captain Ryan McDonagh after a five-game absence due to an upper body injury. The team responded by playing a strong defensive game in front of Henrik Lundqvist, who was sharp in making 28 saves. However the Rangers managed little offense against a stout Penguins defense, registering just 17 shots on rookie goaltender Matt Murray, who made his first start of the series.
The two teams entered the third period tied 1-1, but a rare defensive zone miscue by the Rangers led directly to an uncontested Matt Cullen goal at 4:16. Keith Yandle and Dan Boyle fumbled the puck in the circle and Cullen scooped up the loose disc, skated in, and slid the puck between Lundqvist’s pads to make it 2-1.
Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang added an empty-net goal with 12.1 seconds remaining to secure the Penguins victory.
After having a goal disallowed following a successful coach’s challenge by the Penguins in the opening period, the Rangers opened the scoring 39 seconds into the middle stanza on a Rick Nash shorthanded goal. With the Penguins pushing forward below the circles after an offensive zone face off win, Rangers defensemen Marc Staal and Kevin Klein teamed to work the puck away and quickly up to Nash speeding down left wing. Nash reached the left circle and wired his shot top shelf past Murray to give New York a 1-0 lead on his first goal of the series.
It looked as though that lead would hold up to the second intermission as Lundqvist made several clutch top-flight saves–including a pair of sparklers back-to-back on Kris Letang and Phil Kessel at the 14-minute mark of the period. However the dangerous Penguins power play connected for the fourth time in the series with under a minute to play in the second to tie the score, 1-1.
With Marc Staal in the penalty box for hooking former teammate Carl Hagelin by the Rangers net, Pittsburgh won the ensuing face off and controlled the puck in the Blueshirts zone before Kessel zipped a pass through the low slot and off Sidney Crosby who was stationed to the left of Lundqvist. Crosby’s second goal of the series came with 42 seconds left in the second period and evened things up for the Penguins who held a 19-13 shots advantage through 40 minutes of play.
The Rangers had thought they had scored the game’s first goal at the 12:56 mark of the first period. Mats Zuccarello found Chris Kreider alone in front after some terrific work by Brady Skjei winning an extended puck battle in the left-wing corner, and Kreider rifled his shot into the net. However Pittsburgh’s head coach Mike Sullivan used his coach’s challenge, believing that New York’s J.T. Miller had been off sides on the play. Though it was only by a hair, video review upheld the challenge and Kreider’s goal came off the scoreboard.
New York still had more than three minutes worth of a power play remaining even after Pittsburgh’s successful challenge at that point–with Conor Sheary in the box serving a double minor for high sticking Dominic Moore at 12:10 of the first. However after the thwarted goal, the Rangers managed little else the remainder of the power play. The Rangers also failed to score on two more power plays in the second period and were 0-4 on the night.
Jim Cerny
BlueshirtsUnited.com
