NEW YORK (NY) – A game with nine total goals needed overtime to determine a winner. Just 58 seconds into extra time Evgeni Malkin recorded his fourth point of the night, scoring into a near empty net on a dish from Phil Kessel after an errant pass from Ryan McDonagh behind his own net.
The Rangers started the game as they have each time this year – sluggish. The Penguins got a goal just 43 seconds into the game off a wrister from Kessel. They would extend the lead to two, less than seven minutes later from former Blueshirt Carl Hagelin.
New York came into this game facing much adversity and scrutiny with their recent play. Slow starts, misbehaving in their own zone, bad passes and much more were the story for almost every game to start the year. Head Coach Alain Vigneault has been changing up lines before and during each game, trying to find the right pairing.
The second period was a whole different beast. The Rangers came out flying, making crisp passes, beating the opponents to the puck and winning the corner battles. They were rewarded when David Desharnais recorded his first goal as a New York Ranger with a quick snap shot from the left circle.
“I thought we battled back really well in this game.” Henrik Lundqvist said on his teams ability to fight back. “Played a strong game, played against a really strong team, made it tough for them at times”
Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby took a double minor at 13:29 and the Rangers made him pay.
Pavel Buchnevich and J.T Miller each got their first goal of the year, a minute apart of each other, as the Rangers got their first lead of the night.
With two minutes to play, a breakdown in their own zone and relentless pressuring from the Penguins resulted in a nifty dish from Malkin to Patric Hornqvist to tie the game going into the third.
Michael Grabner recorded his first goal of the year in the third period on a highlight reel passing play. Going down on a 2-on-1 Grabner had Desharnais breaking hard to the net. He was able to sauce the pass over a diving defenseman to Desharnais who one-timed the puck back to Grabner who slammed it home into the empty net.
New York has had trouble starting games and ending them. Tuesday night was no different.
After giving up a goal less than two minutes to go in the second period, the Rangers let the Penguins tie the game with less than one minute to go in regulation.
During a delayed handpass in which Crosby elected to not touch the puck (which would have stopped time), he hovered over waiting for a Ranger player to touch the puck to negate the handpass. That player was defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk who was unaware of the delayed call.
Crosby took advantage, immediately firing the puck from behind the goal line, banking it off Lundqvist and in to tie the game at four.
The frustration continues to grow, especially off a game that the Rangers thought they had looked up. Lundqvist admitted his irritation saying “to sit here and not come up with the two points, with the way we played there down the stretch, it hurts”.
Lundqvist finished the game with 28 saves on 33 shots while opposing net minder Matt Murray stopped 28 of 32 for the win.
The Rangers next game will be home against their in-state rival the Islanders on Thursday at 7pm.
The Penguins get a breather and will face the Panthers in Florida on Friday at 7:30pm.
Follow Danny on Twitter for Rangers recaps and updates: @Danny_PJones
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