New York Rangers at Pittsburgh Penguins: After The Horn

Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Final Score:

New York Rangers-4 Pittsburgh Penguins-3

First Period:
The Rangers came out strong in the beginning of the first period and Benoit Pouliot scored the first goal of the game for the Rangers after poking the puck into the goal from under Marc-Andre Fleury‘s pad. After a strong battle in the first period between the Penguins and Rangers, Carl Hagelin took a two-minute interference call giving Pittsburgh a power play. During this power play, Sidney Crosby took a backhanded shot on Henrik Lundqvist who saved the shot and on deflection from Lundqvist’s pad Olli Maatta made a backhanded shot into the goal which tied the game at 1-1. The remaining of the first period

Second Period:

In the beginning of the second period, the Penguins’ James Neal took a penalty for interference, giving the Rangers a two-minute power play. Off of a power play face-off, Dan Girardi fired a rocket shot into the top corner of the goal putting the Rangers up 2-1 at the beginning of the second period. Similar to the first period however, the Penguins scored another power play goal. After Rick Nash had a break away and missed his shot, he then took a two-minute interference call giving the Penguins another power play. On their second power play of the game, Malkin of the Penguins fired a slap-shot goal past Lundqvist tying the game up at 2 a piece. Five minutes after the Penguins goal, Nash took a second penalty, this time for tripping. 40 seconds into the Penguins third power play of the Game, Haglin took a hooking penalty against the Penguins’ Neal, who took a diving penalty at the same time. Luckily, the Penguins were denied a power play goal. The Rangers received another power play after Chris Kunitz had a roughing penalty against Mats Zuccarello but weren’t able to produce anything from end, ending the second period with the game still tied at 2 a piece and the Rangers up in shots 32 to 21.

Third Period:

The third period was a much faster pace than the previous two periods, and you could tell that both teams were getting more aggressive with their forecheck. During the first five minutes of play, Pittsburgh’s Harry Zolneirczyk and Dominic Moore both took two-minute roughing calls. Following the roughing call, Rangers received a holding call against Ryan McDonagh giving the Penguins their fourth power play of the game. Fortunately, the Rangers were able to kill off the penalty to keep the game tied at two. After several minutes of intense game play, Brooks Orpik took a holding call against Derick Brassard which allowed Pouliot his second goal of the game from an assist from Girardi putting the Rangers up 3-2. This lead lasted until the final 3 minutes of the game when Neal scored his first goal of the game to tie the game at three and send the teams into over time.

Over Time:

Five Minutes of play, with no scores made by either team and a lot of back and forth by both teams. Rangers had the only shot on goal during over time, and lead total shots of the game with 41 shots compared to the Penguins 29.

Henrik Lundqvist had a strong game with 26 of 29 shots saved, a save percentage of .897%

Shoot Out:

Penguins first shot on goal was a wrist shot taken by Jokinen and rebounded off the goalpost. Rangers first player to take a shot was Pouliot whose backhanded shot missed just wide of the net. Penguins Captain, and Captain of Team Canada in the 2014 Winter Olympics, Sydney Crosby took the third shot of the shootout which was saved by Lundqvist denying the Penguins a second goal. Second to shoot for the Rangers was Mats Zuccarello who’s backhanded shot found the back of the net giving the Rangers a 1-0 shoot out lead. Malkin took the Penguins final shootout shot which tied the shootout to 1-1 for each team leaving Brad Richards with the game deciding shot. Richards’ wrist shot found its way past Fleury giving the Rangers the Over Time, Shootout win in Pittsburgh before the two-week break for the 2014 Winter Olympics

TEAM STATS

Three Stars:

3) Dan Girardi

2) Olli Maatta

1) Benoit Pouliot