Even if his team had given up at least the equivalent of a showdown in its two previous games, captain Sidney Crosby did not feel that significant changes were needed to get the Pittsburgh Penguins home in order.
In Crosby’s eyes, an adjustment here and an adjustment there would strengthen the Penguins’ typically solid defensive structure.
“We made some mistakes,” Crosby said via video conference. “There have been times that we have put ourselves in a bad place, except that we have given up pretty good chances. But we also generated some good stuff. It’s about sharpening our game a bit and giving ourselves a chance. ‘
The Penguins did it largely during Thursday’s 5-2 win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
It was by no means perfect. The Rangers had a handful of quality chances, including two on mostly empty nets that resulted in missed shots and an unsuccessful penalty kick. But the Penguins limited the number of high-chance opportunities to a great extent and kept the Rangers to 24 strokes.
The Penguins scored a good result in 6 minutes, 26 seconds. With Marcus Pettersson’s crossbar defender Radim Zohorna motoring his 6-foot-6, 220-pound frame on the right wing, hitting past Rangers defender Libor Hajek and attacking the net and hitting an apron past goalkeeper Igor . Shesterkin’s real skate for his second career goal.
“I did it in the Czech Republic, and I did it in the AHL (with Wilkes-Barre / Scranton),” Zohorna said. ‘I was at full speed and tried to skate and went to the net. I was a little lucky and scored a goal. It was nice.”
Zohorna helped feed Evan Rodrigues for the second time at 11:28 on a power play chance.
After goalkeeper Tristan Jarry took a penalty kick from Kreider at 17:59 seconds, the Penguins took a win at 10:29 from the third period when forward Jason Zucker with a full-back – his sixth of the season – out passed a lock. given from the right wing by Rodrigues.
The Rangers persisted when forward Kevin Rooney scored his sixth goal of the third point at 13:48, but the score was limited at 18:29 when Penguins forward Mark Jankowski scored his fourth goal on an empty net collected.
Jarry made 22 runs on 24 shots and increased his record to 16-8-2 thanks to a stiffer defense in front of him.
“We can be defensively stingy and still be able to offend,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s a much better formula for success in this league.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a staff writer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Seth by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .