The Penguins took a chokehold on their first-round playoff series against the New York Rangers with a 5-0 victory in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
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The Penguins hold a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and can clinch a spot in the second round by winning Game 5 in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
The New York Rangers were absolutely horrific in Game 4 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and now find themselves down 3-1 in the series. The over is also 5-0-4 in their last nine games after scoring two goals or less in their previous game and 7-1-4 in their last 12 games when their opponent allows two goals or less in their previous contest.
The game went from bad to worse for the New York Rangers after they continuously took penalties in the second and third periods.
The Penguins also got a monster game from Malkin, who made his presence known for the first time since returning in Game 2.
According to the New York Post, Mangold was targeting Penguins assistant coach Rick Tocchet and star center Sidney Crosby with a torrent of trash talk from his perch on the other side of the glass.
Coincidentally current Penguin Matt Cullen opened the game’s scoring for Carolina, but Pittsburgh scored the next three goals, which included two from “Geno”.
Thursday was a “long night” for the goaltender as he was pulled 6:04 into the second period after allowing four goals on 18 shots while all the Blueshirts in front of him were subpar.
The fact they are up 3-1 in this series implies the answer, and certainly Thursday’s win might have been the most complete game turned in by any one team on any night in this year’s playoffs.
Malkin wondered what his role would be on a team that was playing well without him. The Rangers, as they have been for most of the series, were second on pucks, second in desperation/urgency and most importantly, second on the scoreboard for the whole night. When it comes to the playoffs, everyone has to play their part and most importantly the leaders of the team have to produce to the extent that everyone knows they can. “He’s just a great player”. “Our intentions are to play a good game and we need them to come up with solid effort and execution and go out and play hard”.
“We are playing a really good team”, he added. When asked about the momentum of this seires and how it will impact them in Pittsburgh, their replies were along the lines of, we know what we have to do and we are taking it one game at a time.
Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said it was the right call. At 21 years old, he’s the youngest goalie in Penguins’ history to start a playoff game. Murrary earned a shutout giving the Penguins a 3-1 series lead.
That could be one game, or it could be the start of another comeback. There was no way that McGuire could get around asking Vigneault the usual in-game question because it was so clear that the Rangers were in the process of getting run out of their own building. Malkin picked up an assist on Fehr’s marker, scored a pair of power-play goals and recorded another assist on the man advantage. Henrik Lundqvist, who made 29 saves, kept NY in it.
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“Either you win or you go home and the season’s over”, Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. Pittsburgh quickly responded with a goal from Crosby and then another from Malkin with seven seconds left in the first period. It was on that same power play that Malkin potted his second of the game.
