jesper fast

AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

The Rangers and Penguins played in the Battle of the Backups last night, and it was a high scoring affair. The Rangers showed great resiliency, answering back each time the Penguins grabbed the lead. The eventual game winner was a fluke, as Pavel Buchnevich got a lucky bounce off Kris Letang’s skate for the winner. Combine that with about 57 posts for the Penguins, and it was a nail biting win.

This game was not pretty to watch. Both teams are a little challenged defensively and were playing their backup goalies. When two potent offenses square off in those situations, you get wide open hockey and a lot of goals. The win is huge for the Rangers, as they need to bank as many points as possible in the death trap that is the Metro Division.

On to the goals:

Pens 1, Rangers 0

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The defense was a mess on this shift. Rick Nash swung and missed, allowing the puck to get through the crease to Patric Hornqvist. Ryan McDonagh and Nick Holden were all over Sidney Crosby, who was almost in the net. That left Conor Sheary wide open about 3 feet away. He buried it in the empty net.

Rangers 1, Pens 1

Boo Nieves’ first NHL goal came off a Mats Zuccarello assist, as he chased down the puck in the corner after they gained the zone. Nieves was at the top of the circle when he received the pass, and used the defenseman as a screen to get the shot through Jarry.

Pens 2, Rangers 1

Another day, another blown assignment. Phil Kessel was left alone cutting to the slot, and Jake Guentzel simply had to feed him the puck. Brady Skjei, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Kevin Hayes all chased Evgeni Malkin cutting, which left Kessel wide open.

Rangers 2, Pens 2

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Skjei took a good pass from Paul Carey to gain the zone, and drove to the net. Jarry made the initial save, but Jesper Fast was following up the play and banged home the rebound.

Rangers 3, Pens 2

Zuccarello took a pass for the partial break after a penalty kill, and put an innocent backhand on Jarry, who let a bad rebound out. Zucc batted home his own rebound for the goal.

Pens 3, Rangers 3

Hornqvist simply got in behind Marc Staal and Ryan McDonagh after a very badly timed change by Jesper Fast. Malkin simply fed him, and Hornqvist broke in and did the rest.

Rangers 4, Pens 3

The Rangers caught a break on this one. Pavel Buchnevich’s pass to David Desharnais went off Kris Letang’s skate and over the shoulder of Jarry.

No game charts are available for this one. The NHL whiffed on their real time stats and their NHL.tv coverage last night. Woof.

Shift Chart

Here is the shift chart. One thing I find to be very interesting is that Mike Sullivan didn’t try to get Crosby away from McDonagh at all. He had last change, yet Crosby and McDonagh were on the ice together a lot. Aside from that, there wasn’t much to see in terms of match ups. Standard from both coaches.

The Rangers came away with two points and showed that they can skate with the Penguins, which is definitely a good sign. They did so without Mika Zibanejad as well, also a good sign. That said, the Penguins owned the second and third periods and hit a ton of posts. Ideally the overall flow is more balanced, but it’s hard to complain about two points against the Pens.

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