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Penguins blow lead again at the Garden, lose 3-2 in shootout to Rangers
by Tony on 12/03/08 at 10:11 PM ET
Comments (7)
Another trip to Madison Square Garden. Another blown two-goal lead. Another shootout loss for the Penguins.
Petr Prucha’s goal with 5:57 remaining in the 3rd period tied the game at two goals apiece for the Rangers, leading to another shootout win over the Penguins, 3-2.
The loss was the Penguins 7th straight in the regular season at MSG.
The game was certainly entertaining, filled with wide open play and plenty of big hits.
The teams’ two heavyweights started the festivities off in the opening minutes, with Colton Orr getting the split decision over Eric Godard.
The Penguins got the first tally of the night in the middle of 4-on-4 play, which was initially a four-minute Penguins penalty to Brooks Orpik, then negated by a Rangers too-many men penalty. Sidney Crosby stole the puck in the Rangers’ zone, came around the net, and fed a backhander to a trailing Mark Eaton for the one-time goal past Henrik Lundqvist to make it 1-0 Pens. It was incredibly Eaton’s first goal as a Pen, and his first goal in 91 games.
The Pens doubled their lead to 2-0 midway through the second period when Rob Scuderi’s slapper from the center point was deflected by Jordan Staal and past Lundqvist into the net.
The Rangers quickly cut into that lead about a minute and a half later led by a great individual effort by Scott Gomez. On an extended Rangers offensive effort, Gomez grabbed the puck behind the net and brought out to the blue line, where he fired a slapper that Nikolai Zherdev tipped it past Dany Sabourin to make it 2-1 Penguins.
The Penguins had several good scoring chances in the third period, including one rush that both Evgeni Malkin and Crosby both had point blank chances but couldn’t put the puck in the net. That same shift resulted in the game-tying goal by Prucha’s goal, when Gomez’ wrister went wide, but the puck bounced back to the net where Prucha banged home the rebound.
The Rangers swept the shootout, with all three of their shooters, Markus Naslund, Zherdev, and Fredrik Sjostrom all scoring on Sabourin. After Miro Satan failed to score, Kris Letang scored on a hard wrister, but Sjostrom’s goal clinched it for the Rangers.
Other notes;
- Both Mike Zigomanis and Tyler Kennedy left the game early with undisclosed injuries. Unknown whether they will be able to play at Carolina tomorrow night.
- The powerplay was shutout again tonight with an 0-for-3 showing, however I have to say they were moving the puck around pretty well against the NHL’s best penalty kill.
- Letang had an excellent game on both ends, with four shots on goal, four hits, blocked six shots and played over 26 minutes.
Penguins will be back on the road tomorrow night in Raleigh against the Hurricanes.
Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: New+York+Rangers, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
Comments
Oopsie !!!
Tks for the heads up Kevin….
Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 12/03/08 at 10:34 PM ET
Hey Kevin, the Pens just rely on Crosby and Malkin to score every night so whats the difference?
Posted by Jeff from San Jose on 12/04/08 at 12:32 AM ET
Have to agree with Jeff. Though I thought for awhile about how to disagree with him.
Posted by DrW from Detroit on 12/04/08 at 07:47 AM ET
Pens have scored 73 goals, 23 came from Sid and Geno. Thats 32%.
Not to mention isn’t that the point of having 2 superstar players?
I can tell you that the point of having a superstar goalie is NOT to force every game into a shootout just to get a win. Why? Because winning shootouts doesn’t mean shit in the playoffs.
Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 12/04/08 at 10:18 AM ET
Forgot to mention that the pens didn’t get a goal from sid or geno last night, so doesn’t that single handedly put down you’re idiot remark?
Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 12/04/08 at 10:19 AM ET
was at the garden and the game was a snoozer. penguins controlled most of the game and the rangers had an awfully difficult time playing with any real cohesion in the penguins’ end of the ice. lucky to score two goals at the end of the game and win in the shootout, though pens should have put them away much earlier.
Posted by mlktst from brklyn on 12/04/08 at 10:44 AM ET
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And by 2-1 you mean 3-2 right? haha. Rags make me mad. They play for the shootout and bank on King Henrik to bail them out every night.
Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 12/03/08 at 10:31 PM ET