The Rangers lived and died early in the season through one-goal, one-goal games.
They were once again crushed by both on Saturday night.
Sidney Crosby delivered the dagger in overtime to lift the Penguins at the Garden past the Rangers, 5-4.
Crosby’s winner, at 2:27 of extra time, came at the end of a long shift for Tony DeAngelo, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, who looked drained after being on the ice for two minutes straight (DeAngelo was just shy of it) while the Penguins made several line changes.
But the Rangers lost the game in the third period, penetrating them with a 4-3 lead after returning from three separate one-backs. The Penguins have tipped the ice during the last twenty minutes of regulation, leading to the fourth time in the last five games that the Rangers have taken a one-goal lead in the third period.
“It seemed like a lot of fun to them in the third period,” said a visibly frustrated Chris Kreider.
‘It’s a recurring thing at this point. We showed what we can do in spurts. We understand what we have to do to be successful, and then they turn up the intensity a bit in the third period there and all of a sudden we get away from there and start our east-west and move no further. You are not winning at the NHL level. When the pressure started to push in the third period, they went north, they put packs behind our D, something we did all night and did all night successfully, and we just got away from it. ‘
Jake Guentzel drew the game at half-past four through the third with a goal that came in a second rebound attempt. Alexandar Georgiev (33 saves) stopped the first two strokes from now on, but could not come up with a third save.
The Rangers were swept away by the Penguins in a duel in Pittsburgh last week, including a shootout loss. In both of those games, the Rangers took a one-goal lead after the third period, only to see it evaporate both times. Saturday was more the same as the Rangers playing their sixth consecutive one goal game, with just one win to show for it.
“Probably a bad period as we played all year,” coach David Quinn said. “They beat us with every flyhalf and won every battle. … They were smarter and looked like a slightly hungrier team than us in the third period. They just won a bunch of foot races for loose kicks, they won fights and we were very gentle around us only. ‘
The Rangers came out strong and even after falling behind, they found an answer for the Penguins’ first three goals. Brendan Lemieux, Kevin Rooney (abbreviated) and Kreider all drew before Artemi Panarin gave the Rangers their first lead of the game, 4-3, on a power play late in the second period.
Then came the third period, when the Rangers struggled to get pucks behind the Penguins’ defense and slowly saw a lead slip through their hands.
“It’s just winning hockey,” Kreider said. ‘No team in the league can just throw their sticks there and play east-west and try to achieve their win. You have to go north at some point. There is not enough space, and there is not enough time. You have to turn their D. You have to let them go 200 feet. [Instead], we turn pucks over the lines, turn pucks in the neutral zone so we do not have pucks dug out of the corners. ”