NEW YORK – The Pittsburgh Penguins have had so much success at Madison Square Garden, they may not have to produce a return trip to Broadway until next season.
Brandon Sutter scored a short-handed goal to break a second-period tie, and the Penguins rode that momentum to move within one win of the Eastern Conference finals with a 4-2 victory within the New York Rangers on Wednesday night. "We know they're going to be desperate, " Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. "They have a lot of depth, and a lot of guys that can create things, so we have to have the same mentality that we had. "
The Penguins turned a tied series into a 3-1 lead at the Garden, where they will have won seven of nine and are 12-4 since Dan Bylsma became their coach. Overall, Pittsburgh is 19-5 against the Rangers in the playoffs and 9-2 in New York. A good start certainly helped.
Evgeni Malkin scored 2: 31 in, and Jussi Jokinen made it 3-1 at 7: 02 of the third prior to the teams traded late goals. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 13 shots.
The only negative for the Penguins was that Fleury allowed an objective for the very first time in three games. Carl Hagelin's tying tally in the second period was the Rangers' first goal in 145 minutes, 30 seconds of playing time.
Mats Zuccarello cut it to 3-2 with 6: 53 left on the Rangers' 2nd shot of the third, but Chris Kunitz restored Pittsburgh's two-goal edge 57 seconds later.
Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves in the loss.
"This isn't the ideal night for us, " Rangers forward Brad Richards said. "The good thing is.. we're still in it. We win Game 1, we're on top of the planet. You lose three in a row, and as quick as it went that way it could go back.
"We want to attempt to bring it back here. Our goal would be to keep pushing the series along. You never know what can happen. "
The weary Rangers played for the sixth time in nine nights, and not a full rest day on Tuesday or the return of forward Chris Kreider helped. Kreider played for the first time since breaking his left hand a month ago.
Jokinen, who comes with an eight-game points streak, managed to get 3-1 with a shot that struck the right leg of Rangers defenseman Marc Staal and bounded past Lundqvist.
Pittsburgh had regained the lead late in the second period by pouncing on New York's inept power play. Not only did the Rangers fail to score for the 36th consecutive advantage, they fell behind for the next time.
New York threw all the momentum back to the Penguins when Sutter scored with 1: 33 left in the second. The Rangers turned within the puck right after a drop pass in the neutral zone. Brian Gibbons streaked in alone and had his shot stopped by Lundqvist, nevertheless the rebound sat in front and Sutter scored his fourth of the postseason.
"It was huge momentum for us entering the third, " Crosby said. "The way we played in the third showed that individuals fed off that. "
The Rangers broke out of the drought 4: 30 in to the second when Ryan McDonagh passed the puck from his end to Hagelin, who became popular with a burst of speed, separate the defense, and snapped in his third of the playoffs to tie it.
It was New York's first goal since Derick Brassard's overtime winner in Game 1 .
Any early lift the Rangers got from the return of Kreider was lost when Malkin gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead.
New York contributed greatly as a turnover by defenseman Anton Stralman started the play. The Penguins pressured and moved the puck freely. Crosby got it to the right of Lundqvist and sent a pass across the slot – that slid past Kunitz and somehow eluded Staal – onto the stick of Malkin, who snapped in a backhander for his fifth of the playoffs on Pittsburgh's first shot.
The Rangers' sloppiness did not end there. Several passes missed their targets, and multiple clearing attempts ended up on Penguins sticks. But New York mountedextended challenge and kept the puck in the Pittsburgh end for at least a minute with about 6 minutes remaining in the first period.
Nevertheless , despite tiring out the Penguins, the Rangers had only one shot during the sequence that ended when Staal was needed slashing.
"Our puck management and execution weren't very good, and ultimately cost us the game, " Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. "I cannot explain it, but you'll find nothing we can do about it. "
Game notes
Penguins D
Brooks Orpik
returned after missing five games having an injury. That he took
Robert Bortuzzo
's place in the lineup but sustained a different injury late in the first period and did not return… Rangers LW
Daniel Carcillo , a healthy scratch in Game 3, came back in. To create room for him and Kreider,Jesper Fast and J. T. Miller sat out.
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