Rangers Bounce Back and Defeat Rival Penguins

The New York Rangers wanted to redeem themselves after their lifeless performance in Buffalo after they resumed their regular season from the Four Nations Faceoff break. They flew from Western New York to Western Pennsylvania to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins who also suffered a disaster of a game on Saturday when they got trounced by the Washington Capitals by a final of eight to three. The Rangers held a team meeting after their embarrassing loss to the Sabres before the media came in.

After getting pulled toward the back end of the first period on Saturday’s game, Head Coach Peter Laviolette sent Igor Shesterkin back in goal to face the Penguins, who had both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin back in the lineup. It would be another fabulous game between these two Metropolitan Division Rivals at PPG Paints Arena.

In the first period, the Penguins scored first. After making a strong save by Shesterkin, the Penguins regrouped with the puck down low and attempted another shot. Cody Glass at the near side made a pass toward the net, as Evgeni Malkin got his stick on the puck, and just enough of a touch to push it past Shesterkin. Uhro Vaakanainen tried to block him out, but Malkin was just too strong to prevent him from scoring at 12:53.

The Rangers would tie it up on the power play. Reilly Smith left the puck in his end for K’Andre Miller to skate up the ice from behind the icing line, all the way inside the Penguins’ blue line. He faked the pass to Smith on his right and gave the puck to Will Cuylle on his left. As Cuylle got inside the near faceoff dot, he snapped a shot past Blomqvist underneath his left arm at 19:12

The only goal of the second period came from the Rangers as they took the lead. Adam Fox had the puck behind his net and quickly played the puck around the glass and off the near boards. A Penguins defender just missed the puck, and J.T. Miller collected it at center ice. He skated into the offensive zone and snapped a hard shot past Blomqvist at 17:00.

In the third period, the Penguins wanted to get control of the game back. They did so within the opening minute of the third as Ryan Shea scored twice. He tied up the game at fifty-seven seconds as Karlsson entered the zone, and passed to Malkin at the near boards, but Shea trailed the play, receiving the pass from Malkin at the top of the slot and scored. His go-ahead goal was a knuckle puck, as he received the puck from Sidney Crosby, and his shot hit a Ranger in front of Shesterkin and deflected in to take the lead at 3:31.

The Rangers got back into the game and tied it up for the second time. Ryan Lindgren got the puck from Adam Fox at the far point, made a diagonal pass to Vincent Trocheck at the near boards on the red line, then made a diagonal pass to Jimmy Vesey just inside the blue line at the far point. He skated in, used the defenseman as a screen, and snapped in his 100th career NHL goal under the crossbar at 11:26.

The Rangers took the lead for good when Mika Zibanejad got the puck in the near corner inside the Rangers’ zone. He gave it to Reilly Smith, who moved it up the ice and played a bit of a give-and-go with Adam Fox, and when they got inside the Penguins’ zone, Smith found Fox in the slot and a sweeping shot beat Blomqvist at 11:26.

J.T. Miller would add an empty-netter for his second of the game and his second two-goal game since being traded back to the Rangers from Vancouver at 19:53 to give the Rangers a five-to-three victory and a big bounce back after the debacle in Buffalo, New York. Igor Shesterkin also rebounded to get the victory, making thirty-five saves out of thirty-eight shots on goal.

The Rangers will now head back to the New York City area and continue on the road as they head over to Belmont Park and take on the New York Islanders at the UBS Arena for a Wednesday matchup. Let’s hope they can add another win and restart a winning streak like they did back in January once the new year gets started.

Player Notes:

J.T. MILLER: Scored twice, including his 250th career goal, for his second consecutive multi-point game. He has recorded eight points (4 Goals-4 Assists ) and four multi-point efforts in his seven games with New York. Miller has 14 points (5 Goals-9 Assists) in his last 13 games.

JIMMY VESEY: Scored his 100th career goal as part of a two-point effort (1 Goal-1 Assist).

ADAM FOX: Extended his point streak to six games (2G-5A) with a goal and an assist. Fox’s goal was his 19th career game winner, surpassing Ron Greschner (18) for the second most among Rangers defensemen.

ARTEMI PANARIN: Notched an assist, giving him points in five of his last seven games (2G- 5A) and nine points in his last nine games (3G-6A).