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The Confluence

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
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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,

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