PENGUINS BEAT RANGERS, 5-1
Three goals in first stand up this time after early deficit
There would be no premature victory lap, no incredulous head coach fuming at the virtual news conference, no squandered two points in the standings.
For the second time in three games, the Penguins had an outburst Sunday with three quick goals in the first period to stun their visitors and fire up the fans at PPG Paints Arena. They apparently learned a hard lesson or two the other night.
This time, the Penguins kept pushing for more and eventually pulled away from the red-hot New York Rangers. Five players scored in a 5-1 victory.
“We just talked about playing the game the right way and playing on our toes and defending hard when we needed to but … we certainly don’t want to be a team that sits on leads,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “Our team is at its best when we’re continuing to try to score. We just have to do it the right way.”
Mika Zibanejad scored on the first shot of the game and the Rangers had seven shots on goal before the first television timeout. But hustle plays by Bryan Rust and others in that period helped the Penguins get the ice tilted the other way.
With 3:47 left in the first, John Marino tied it with his first goal of the season. He beat Alexandar Georgiev with a wrist shot from the right wall two seconds after a Rangers penalty expired. Kasperi Kapanen soon scored on a breakaway.
Sidney Crosby then split the
defense and whacked a skittering puck past the glove of Georgiev, chasing the goalie from the game with three goals on six shots.
The PPG Paints Arena crowd was very pleased but maybe a little out of breath from their unexpected plyometric routine after the Penguins scored three times in 61 seconds, the fastest a NHL team has accomplished that feat in 2021.
The previous possessor of that mark? Yup, it was these Penguins, who scored three goals in 71 seconds Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers. Of course, that would be all they got that night. After jumping to a 3-0 lead in the first, the Penguins let up and let the Flyers come back in a crushing loss.
On Sunday, they followed up their latest scoring outburst by chasing more goals. Crosby banked a perfect stretch pass across two lines to spring Jake Guentzel on a breakaway, but Guentzel couldn’t beat new Rangers goalie Keith Kinkaid.
In the third period, Zach Aston-Reese hustled nearly the full 200 feet to force a turnover. Evgeni Malkin swooped in, made one Rangers defender miss and put the puck on a platter for Kapanen, but Kinkaid kicked that one out.
With 6:03 left, Kapanen returned the favor, getting the puck to Malkin on a 2-on-1 rush. Malkin buried his opportunity, his second goal in as many games.
That was one of three quick-strike goals the Penguins scored off the rush.
“They forecheck hard. They’re a fast team,” said Kapanen, who with a goal and assist Sunday now has eight points in his past eight games. “But I thought we took care of that pretty well. … They’re an aggressive team. They like to pinch.”
Aston-Reese scored for the second time in as many games to make it 5-1.
“We just kind of kept the foot on the pedal and we played more together as a unit, played more of a team game and trusted each other,” Marino said. “We were all working together, whether it be the breakout or little plays like that.”
Defensively, the Penguins held the Rangers mostly in check after taking a 3-1 lead. There were a few anxious moments in the second period when they got a little loose looking for head-man passes. But DeSmith kept the Rangers out.
DeSmith, who was making just his second start since Feb. 11, stopped the final 23 shots he faced to win for the fifth time in his seven starts this season.
“We were really, really solid, especially in the second two periods. We held them to the outside. … It must have been a really frustrating game for them because we were so good defensively and we played really hard tonight,” DeSmith said.
The Penguins gained ground with the win but lost a surging forward to injury.
Jared McCann, who scored the deciding goal in Saturday’s 4-3 victory against the Flyers, spent the majority of the final two periods in the dressing room.
Prior to his departure, McCann appeared to finally be rediscovering his game after a yearlong funk. The winger had been using his wheels to attack the net instead of lingering on the perimeter. He had three goals, an assist and a plus-5 rating in his past five games heading into Sunday and then set up Kapanen’s goal.
After the game, Sullivan said McCann had suffered an upper-body injury.
“I think he’s really found his game here as of late. So it’s discouraging from all of our standpoints to see Jared go down with an injury,” Sullivan said. “Hopefully, it will be something that won’t be too long. But certainly we feel for him.”
They improved to 4-1-0 against the Rangers, who arrived in Pittsburgh on a roll. They had won three in a row and six of eight to pull within four points of the Penguins and the Flyers, who were tied for fourth in the East Division.
The Penguins and the Rangers will face off again Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena.
“Like Coach [Sullivan] was saying, … we just need to keep winning the series and we’ll be in a good spot by the end of the year,” Marino said.