Despite ending a 166 minute goalless drought at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers dropped game three of their series to Pittsburgh 3-1 on Tuesday night. Now trailing two games to one, New York faces a critical test on Thursday.
After splitting both games in Pittsburgh, the Rangers returned home for the playoffs and a chance to take home ice in the series. That task seemed to be made a little easier by the return of captain Ryan McDonagh, who missed the final three games of the regular season and first two games of the playoffs with a hand injury.
After having a power play goal by Chris Kreider called off for being offsides, following a Pittsburgh coach’s challenge, the Rangers failed to convert on Conor Sheary’s four-minute double minor for high-sticking Dominic Moore.
The power play woes for New York aren’t exaggerated. They’ve scored on just one of 12 chances in the series and had just one on 16 opportunities in their final five games of the regular season.
The Rangers, who had taken 13 penalties in Pittsburgh continued their parade to the box on Tuesday, taking three minors in the first and an early second period penalty.
As it turned out, the Kreider boarding call at 0:22 of the second saw Kevin Klein spring Rick Nash loose on a two-on-one chance, Nash beat Matt Murray, making his playoff debut, glove side for the 1-0 lead. The goal ended a 166:02 scoring drought for the Rangers at home, dating back to last year’s Eastern Conference finals match up with the Tampa Bay Lightning, that saw New York shut out in games five and seven.
As advantageous the sequence of events leading to Nash’s goal 39 seconds into the second period were, they would not continue. A late period call on Mark Staal for hooking Carl Hagelin led to a Penguins’ power play goal at 19:18 of the period from Sidney Crosby to even the score at one.
Pittsburgh outshot the Rangers 31-17 in the game and applied much of its pressure in the third period.
Even with the return of McDonagh to help eat some of the hard minutes on the back end, the defense was still somewhat shaky for New York. Miscommunication between Dan Boyle and Keith Yandle helped ex-Ranger Matt Cullen break free in front of the net to beat Henrik Lundqvist five-hole at 4:16 of the third.
The Pens would add an empty-netter late in the third by Kris Letang to go up 3-1 and re-take the lead in the series.
McDonagh looked good in his return. While it looked like the team was trying to pace his minutes, he finished with a team-leading 22:48 of ice time.
Lundqvist stopped 28 of 30 shots in the contest and did his part to keep the Rangers alive despite a seismic shot disparity. Ultimately, there was little run support offered and not much generated to help earn some, either.
“Our biggest issue was we couldn’t make any plays with the puck. Whether it be breaking out of our end, going through the neutral zone, or once we got in their end we just didn’t make enough plays.”
Head Coach Alain Vigneault noted to the media following the game.
****
Matt Murray stopped 16 of 17 in his playoff debut. He and Jeff Zatkoff are the first tandem in NHL history to win their playoff debuts in the same series, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Zatkoff won game one by a 5-2 final, stopping 35 of 37 shots on goal. The status of Marc-Andre Fleury is still unclear. If he starts in game four, he’ll be the third starter in four games.
Kris Letang will not face any supplemental discipline for his slash on Viktor Stalberg.
The series will resume on Thursday and the Rangers will look to rebound after a poor showing, highlighted by just 17 shots on goal.
“We kept saying it, we kept trying to tell ourselves – we have to lay in and shoot it. I’m sure we’ll look at some things when we watch the game and wish we put more pucks on net especially because it was his (Murray) first game in a while.”
Ryan McDonagh told media following the loss.
