It’s time to make a difference.”ABOUT THE PENGUINS: Third-stringer Jeff Zatkoff made 35 saves in his first start since February 20 while spelling Fleury, who suffered his second concussion of the season on March 31 and said of his availability for Game 2: “I don’t expect it, but I hope so”.Lundqvist was struck near the eye by teammate Marc Staal’s stick late in the first period of Game 1, an incident the goaltender described as “very scary actually”.
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“The big thing for me was going to the specialist and knowing there was no damage to the eye”, Lundqvist said after facing shots at Consol Energy Center.
He missed a total of 25 games, yet still was the team’s second-leading goal scorer with 27.
NY won despite playing without two of its top-four defencemen, captain Ryan McDonagh and veteran Dan Girardi both out with injuries.
Then, at the start of the third Chris Kreider scored to give the Rangers the go ahead goal in their victory.
Even if McIlrath, Skeji or any of the other Rangers defenders slip up at moments in the next couple games, they have tremendous confidence in the fact that Lundqvist is going to bail them out and keep this Penguins team under three goals. Only Kessel managed to beat Lundqvist, landing his second of the day and second on the power play early in the third.
The New York Rangers defeaated the Pittsburgh Penguins and will have a well-deserved home ice advantage when they return to Madison Square Garden for Game 3. Is the physical play the key to the Rangers winning this series? “We had probably a five- or six-minute span in the second period where we lost some of the details of our game, the awareness away from the puck”, coach Mike Sullivan said.
Rangers forward J.T. Miller, a native of East Palestine, Ohio, assisted on each of the three NY goals in the second period.
The Penguins will play their regular season finale Sunday on the road against the rival Hershey Bears, 5 p.m.
Malkin, coming off an upper-body injury believed to be his wrist, was a full participant in practice and declared himself a game-time decision.
The series heads back to NY for Game 3 on Tuesday night. Olli Maatta’s misplay led to Brassard’s break-in finish for the Rangers’ first lead of the series. After a lengthy video review, it was ruled Brassard was onside.
Evgeni Malkin joined the team for today’s game and put up a point (one assist) against the New York Rangers.
Lundqvist changes the story in Pittsburgh; Brassard, Backstrom, Kessel, Holtby and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. 934 save percentage in 34 playoff games which have followed a Rangers loss.
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Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead at 3:21 into the second period when Kessel finished off a pretty sequence that saw Nick Bonino slip a cross-ice backhand pass while falling to the ice to Trevor Daley, who dropped it for Kessel to bury into the open net. He said afterward that he knew he didn’t play his best, but that it felt good to get that first taste of playoff hockey under his belt. The Penguins also have a shorthanded goal.
