Shorthanded Rangers shut down depleted Penguins

AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

The Rangers came into Pittsburgh without arguably their two best skaters, yet on a three game win streak. The Penguins were without Evgeni Malkin, but on a six game win streak. Something had to give for these two hot teams. The depleted blue line held the depleted offense in check, in the sense that Henrik Lundqvist was on fire all game, making big stops on every shot he saw.

The ice was tilted for the Penguins most of this game. The Rangers flatlined on quality chances in the second period, and couldn’t get it going in the third. It’s tough to say if they went into a shell though, because it was two periods of the Penguins peppering them with quality chances. Lundqvist stood tall, and always seems to bring his best against this team. Couple that with two timely goals, and you have a solid win against a hot team.

As always, you can view the full videos on our video page here. All GIFs are on nyrgifs.com, filtered under the date of the game. On to the goals:

Rangers 1, Pens 0

The Penguins had a total meltdown on this one. All three focused on the Tanner Glass shot from the bad angle. Fleury couldn’t handle it cleanly either, and that gave Kevin Hayes all day to grab the puck, hold it, and put it in the empty net. Had he missed here, he would have been granted a penalty shot because Fleury threw his stick.

Rangers 2, Pens 0

Derek Stepan made a great play to chip the puck past Chris Kunitz and a pinching Brian Dumoulin to Dominic Moore to start a 2-on-1 break. It was a bad pinch by Dumoulin. Derrick Pouliot played the rush fine, but Moore put it in the top corner for the goal.

Rangers 3, Pens 0

Jesper Fast with the empty-netter. He took a shot from Kris Letang just after he released it.

Shots

The Pens really took it to the Rangers all game. Been a while since the Rangers allowed 60+ shot attempts. And this was without Malkin. Hank earned his shutout.

Scoring Chances

Boy is this one ugly. The Rangers really flatlined in the second and third periods. This is reminiscent of the October games.

Individual Corsi

Upper left is good. Lower right is bad. Real bad. Yikes.

Shot Locations

More of the same. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say yikes or yeesh anymore.

Shift Chart

Mike Sullivan had the last change, and did what he could to get Crosby or Phil Kessel out against the Staal/Girardi pairing as much as he could. Considering the performance, it’s a sure bet the Rangers will put in a claim for Christian Ehrhoff, although I doubt he falls to them.

This makes it four in a row for the Rangers, mostly without their two best players. That’s pretty impressive, and signs that the resilient team from last year and two years ago is coming back. This was the first bad one at even strength in a while, but these happen. Overall, still trending up.