Rangers find another way to blow late lead, lose in OT

In New York, it was another blown one-goal lead for the Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins were the beneficiaries of their inability to hold a lead.

Casey DeSmith got the win for the Pittsburgh Penguins

Sidney Crosby completed the Pens’ rally with a goal in extra time to give the Rangers another crushing defeat, 4-3.

“We just had some good pressure there for a couple shifts so we knew we were playing against tired guys,” Crosby said. “We were trying to find some openings to get some shots. We ended up getting that. I didn’t get all of it, but I was glad to see it go in.”

Casey DeSmith made 30 saves in the win.

Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Kevin Rooney and Brendan Lemieux scored for New York, who held a 4-3 lead going into the third period.

“It’s a recurring theme at this point,” Kreider said. “We’ve shown what we can do in spurts. We understand what we need to do to be successful. Then they crank up the intensity a little bit in the third period there and all of a sudden we get away from it and start going east-west and not advancing zones. You don’t win at the NHL level doing that.

“When push came to shove in the third period they were going north, they were putting pucks behind our ‘D.’ It was something we had done all night and done successfully all night, and we just got away from it.”

Jake Guentzel scored in the early minutes of the third to get the teams to extra time.

The Rangers dropped to a pitiful 2-4-2 record.

Jason Zucker, Brandon Tanev and Kasperi Kapanen also scored for the Pens in regulation.

“I thought the third period was great, the way we played on our toes, creating chances off the rush, in the zone,” Crosby said. “That’s hard to play against. That’s when we’re at our best. We’ve got to build on that.”

The angers are simply incapable of playing with a lead, or really at any time of a game. To say that are ou-tcoached is an understatement.