KK Sponsors - Fathead | IceJerseys.com | Shop.NHL.com

LOGIN | REGISTER | RSS FEEDS

The Confluence

Next entry: Zigomanis probably done for the year after shoulder surgery

Previous entry: Orpik, Talbot out vs. Rangers: Crosby, Letang, Scuderi game-time decisions

Penguins, Fleury clamp down on Rangers, 3-0

by Tony on 01/18/09 at 03:30 PM ET
Comments (0)

Maybe, just maybe, we’re seeing the Pittsburgh Penguins start to pull out of this prolonged slump.

Tuesday night, we saw the Penguins play their best defensive game of the year in a 4-2 win over the Flyers.

Today, on a Sunday matinee in hyped-up Pittsburgh awaiting the AFC Championship game in a few hours, the Penguins perhaps played their best offensive game in recent times.  Combine that with an excellent performance from Marc-Andre Fleury, who stopped all 33 shots for his 2nd shutout of the year, and the Penguins downed the New York Rangers, 3-0.

The win was the 3rd in the last 4 games for the Pens, who climbed back into playoff contention with the win.

The Pens had outstanding puck movement on both sides of the ice against the Rangers, who looked a bit flat and tired to be honest.  Even in the third period, with the Rangers down 3-0, they really didn’t put any extra pressure on the Penguins’ defense.

But arguably, the biggest key to the game was the contribution on the scoresheet by the Pens’ secondary scorers.  For the first time in a long time, neither Sidney Crosby nor Evgeni Malkin had a point, and they still scored three goals.

The Penguins started the scoring about seven minutes into the game when Petr Sykora made a nice centering to Chris Minard in the slot, who one-timed it past Henrik Lundqvist to give the Pens a 1-0 lead.

They doubled their lead minutes later when Tyler Kennedy skated into the Rangers’ zone and fired a slapper from the right slot past Lundqvist to make it 2-0 Pens.

On the powerplay in the second period, the Pens extended their lead when Ryan Whitney made a great pass behind the Rangers’ defense to Sykora, who skated in on Lundqvist and fired a wrister past him to give the Pens a 3-0 lead.

Actually, the score could have been worse.  Lundqvist made big saves on breakaways from Jordan Staal and Malkin, not to mention on a penalty shot by Crosby.

Other notes:
- Paul Bissonnette had the hit of the game, planting former Penguins Michal Rozsival into the glass, temporarily taking him out of the game.
- Alex Goligoski was scratched due to the flu.
- Ryan Whitney led the Pens in ice time with 26:50.
- Sykora’s goal was the lone one scored on the powerplay, the Pens went 1 for 5.

The Penguins will now face the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.

Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
 Tags: New+York+Rangers, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,

Comments

Be the first to comment.

Add a Comment

Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.

Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.

Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.

Most Recent Blog Posts

About The Confluence

Welcome to The Confluence, a Pittsburgh Penguins blog since 2006.  Originally at Blogspot, then at MVN, The Confluence has over 1000 articles reporting Penguins news as well as jumping on my soapbox to opine constructive Penguins criticism.  My posts are regularly linked by hockey websites such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Empty Netters and Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy, and I’ve done guest blogger spots on such websites as the New York Times.  I invite you to spend a little time and peruse the archives at all of the sites for some of my better work.  I am a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer, but don’t confuse me with my fellow Chief at A2Y.

Please feel free to send any comments to me at .  If you’d like to befriend me on Facebook, click here.  If you’d like to join The Confluence page on Facebook, click here.  If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, click here.

The Confluence Links

Archives