Squad ready to ‘move on’ after loss to Pens in marathon

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Rangers coach gerard gallant admitted that the original plan for his team had been to practice on Wednesday, but a day after the Blueshirts lost Game 1 of their first-round playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3 in triple-overtime, it made more sense for Gallant to keep the players off the ice, instead.

“You’re not going to skate your team after six periods of hockey,’’ he said.

The focus Wednesday, Gallant said, was to “move on, get ready for the next one.’’ That will be Thursday at Madison Square Garden, when the Rangers try to tie the best-of-seven series at 1-1.

“I mean, it was a battle last night and we came out the short end of the stick,’’ Gallant said. “But it’s one game, so you’ve got to move on, you know? No big deal. We would have loved to have won it, but you’ve got to battle back and win the next one.’’

The Rangers dominated play in the first period Tuesday, holding a massive edge in the physicality department with several huge body checks, and a 15-10 advantage in shots on goal. they took a 1-0 lead on Adam Fox’s power play goal 9:19 into the game, and made it 2-0 on Andrew Copp’s goal at 3:08 of the second.

But just 1:28 after Copp’s goal, Pittsburgh got the first of two goals from Jake Guentzel to get back in the game. And very quickly the penguins took the game over, out shooting the Rangers 25-8 in the second period. guentzel’ s second goal tied it at 2-2, Chris Kreider’s

shorthanded goal briefly gave the Rangers the lead back, at 3-2, but bryan rust tapped one in at the back post on a five-on three power play to make it 3-3.

“That first period we were real good, and even at the start of the second,’’ Fox said. “And then the tide kind of turned there, and I think we let the game get away from us… They had 25 shots in the second period, and, you know, it’s tough to hold a lead when you’re giving up that many shots, that many chances.’’

A potential go-ahead goal by Filip Chytil with 3:10 left in regulation time was overturned on video review after a challenge by Pittsburgh, with Kaapo Kakko ruled to have interfered with Penguins goalie Casey Desmith. The Penguins then also survived losing Desmith to an injury midway through the second overtime before winning it at 5:58 of the third overtime on a deflection goal by Evgeny Malkin.

Gallant, a veteran coach who won the Jack Adams Award as Coach of the Year in 2018 after leading the expansion Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final, did his best to project calm when asked about the Rangers’ situation now, trailing 1-0 in the series and having lost home ice advantage.