PENS FALL IN OVERTIME
Hayes’ OT goal puts Penguins in 3-1 trench against Rangers
The Penguins probably should be used to it by now. All of it. To losing playoff games, 2-1, to the New York Rangers.
After all, they’ve done it three times in the past week, including Game 4 Wednesday night of their opening-round series at Consol Energy Center.
To losing in overtime, since New York’s victory was the Penguins’ sixth consecutive overtime loss in the playoffs.
Not that they’re going to dwell on such details now.
Not when the only thing of real consequence is that the Rangers have a 3-1 lead in the series and can secure a spot in Round 2 with a victory in Game 5. It is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. Friday at Madison Square Garden, where the Penguins and New York split the two previous games.
History shows just how much of an upper hand the Rangers grabbed by winning Game 4. Teams taking a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series have won 249 of 276 of them, a success rate of 90.2 percent.
Rookie Kevin Hayes gave New York its choke-hold by knocking a shot by Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury from the left side of the crease at 3:14 of overtime.
Penguins coach Mike Johnston said his players had “textbook” defensive coverage as the game-ending sequence unfolded, which likely compounded their distress over losing.
“We played a solid game,” Fleury said. “It’s a tough one to lose.”
Nothing terribly new for the Penguins, who have lost four home playoff games in a row to the Rangers, the first
time that has happened against any opponent.
Rangers coach Alain Vigneault volunteered that “all the games have been very competitive, very hard-fought,” and that’s not just hyperbole. This is only the second time the Penguins have had the first four games of a series decided by one goal; it also happened in Round 1 against Columbus in 2014.
The Penguins spoke at length after Game 3 about the importance of improving their start, then went out and backed it up with their best first period of the series.
They recorded eight of the 10 shots in the opening 20 minutes and got the only goal when Patric Hornqvist deflected a Ben Lovejoy shot past New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist for his second of the series at 2:22.
“We talked that they were going to come at us, and come at us hard,” Vigneault said. “And they did.”
Hornqvist’s goal gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead for the first time in the series and ended a streak of six consecutive playoff games in which they had given up the first goal.
Being unable to get more of a tangible payoff for their early domination cost the Penguins in the second, when New York had an edge in play and pulled even shortly before the second intermission.
Penguins nemesis Derick Brassard got the goal, his third of the series, at 17:15, jamming in a shot from near the right post.
Neither team could score in the third period, stretching the game past 60 minutes for the first time in the series.
Overtime didn’t last long, however, and New York moved into position to finish the series Friday.
Whether the Penguins will feel desperate, or simply defeated, after how the first four games have gone remains to be seen, but defenseman Ian Cole seems convinced they can get back into the series.
“It’s hard to shake off, for sure,” he said. “It’s easier said than done. But that’s what we have to do, go to New York and get one, then bring it back here and get another one. Turn this into a seven-game series.”