Rangers bounce back with rout, even series
NEW YORK — Rangers fans waited five years to see playoff hockey again at Madison Square Garden and they’ll get to see at least another home game.
After dropping the series opener in three overtimes on Tuesday, the Rangers bounced back Thursday when Artemi Panarin, held scoreless in Game 1, and Frank Vatrano, each had a goal and two assists as the Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 in Game 2 of the teams’ first-round series.
The Rangers appeared to escape what could have been a devastating blow when goaltender Igor Shesterkin was flattened on a hit by Pittsburgh’s Jeff Carter with 2:04 remaining in the third period. Shesterkin lay on his back and writhed in pain for a few moments, and the training staff came out to check on him. But he was able to get up on his own and finish the game.
Carter was assessed a two-minute penalty for goaltender interference
on the play.
The victory evened the best-ofseven series at one game apiece, and the scene now shifts to Pittsburgh for the next two games, with Game 3 coming up on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Panarin, who assisted on the first two Ranger goals, by Andrew Copp and Ryan Strome, scored his first goal of the playoffs at 8:02 of the third period, to give the Rangers a little breathing room and a 4-2 lead, when he sent backhanded centering pass toward the goal crease and the puck banked in off Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson and got past goaltender Louis Domingue.
Vatrano made it 5-2 a minute and 47 seconds later when he slipped by Matheson on a rush up the right wing boards, cut in, and whipped a wrist shot over the right shoulder of the right-handed-catching Domingue.
Pittsburgh started the game with Domingue, it’s third-string goaltender, in net, after backup Casey Desmith had been forced to leave Game 1 in the second overtime because of a lower body injury. No. 1 goalie Tristan Jarry is already out with a lower body injury, believed to be a broken foot.
Pittsburgh also was without forward Rickard Rakell and Brian Dumoulin, who both suffered injuries in Game 1, while the Rangers were without defenseman Ryan Lindgren and forward Barclay Goodrow, whom coach Gerard Gallant said were “banged up.’’
Meanwhile, Shesterkin, who made a Rangers record 79 saves in Game 1, was back in goal for the Blueshirts and just as sharp as always. He made xx saves, many of them of the highest quality. Shesterkin was especially busy in the second period, when the Rangers were outshot, 17-14, and in the early part of the third, before Panarin cooled the pressure off with his goal.
The Rangers were helped by getting a couple of power plays in Game 2, which was something they didn’t see much of in the series opener.