61 seconds doom the Rangers in 5-1 loss to Penguins
This game started off so well for the New York Rangers. They came out playing hard and the one player everyone hoped would score, did just that. Mika Zibanejad scored his first even strength goal of the season just 1:18 into the game and it looked the winning streak had legs.
Then the Rangers got a power play and could get nothing going, giving the Penguins some momentum. Then it all came crashing down in a 61 second sequence, when the Penguins scored three goals, chasing Alexandar Georgiev and creating a hole too deep for the Rangers to climb out of.
Keith Kinkaid came in to make his Rangers debut and played really well, but this is a Ranger team that cannot come back from a two goal deficit and they were playing a well coached, experienced and talented hockey team. After those three goals, the Rangers were doomed.
The irony is that except for those 61 seconds, the Rangers played the Penguins evenly for two periods, only falling apart in the third period when they were held at bay by the Penguins and they gave up two meaningless goals.
A frustrated David Quinn agreed that they got off to a good start. “I actually thought up until that first goal we were doing a lot of good things, not just the first ten minutes, right up until the goal. ”
After that he said the defense was “way too puck conscious in the neutral zone, not really alert… gave up three or four breakaways tonight because we’re playing the puck and not keeping our body between the net and the offensive player just basic things. ”
He repeated the mantra we have heard so often. “We didn’t work hard enough to get inside and earn our ice. If you’re gonna score in this league you’re gonna get inside and earn it, you can’t just concede someones in the middle and take the path of least resistance…we were way to easy to play against.”
Jacob Trouba returned to the lineup and spoke after the game. He chalked up the loss to a bad two minutes stretch and he gave a lot of credit to the Penguins. “They got a lead and they played a pretty tight game defensively and shut it down and they didn’t give us a ton of chances. When there are two teams on the ice, it’s not just us doing what we want, you’ve got to give them credit for shutting us down in the neutral zone.”
What no one talked about was Alexandar Georgiev who was not at his best. The goals he allowed were stoppable and he deserved to be pulled. Kinkaid actually kept the Rangers in the game with some fine saves and he had no chance on the two goals he allowed, coming when the Rangers were pushing the offense, leaving them vulnerable to the Penguins counterpunch.
The Rangers have some interesting questions facing them as they prepare for Tuesday’s rematch. Igor Shesterkin skated in practice and could be ready to go. If not, does Quinn go with Kinkaid or does he go back to Georgiev?
About the game
The game got off to a fabulous start when with just over a minute gone, Pavel Buchnevich shoveled a pass to Mika Zibanejad who came in on a two on one with Alexis Lafrenière.
You could see that Zibanejad was looking to make the pass, but decided to shoot and he put it in, past Casey DeSmith.
His delighted teammates mobbed him and he was clearly relieved when back on the bench.
i-love-mika-smiling.gif pic.twitter.com/NdddCOv4Aa
— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) March 8, 2021
At 9:15, Sidney Crosby took a tripping penalty, but the Rangers power play could get nothing going. The penalty kill gave the Penguins some life and they had several long shifts in the Rangers zone. When Ryan Lindgren took an interference penalty at 14:11 the Rangers were outshooting the Penguins 9-2. The power play looked confident and they got out without allowing a goal, but the Penguins scored just two seconds after the penalty expired. In reality it was a power play goal.
John Marino snapped a shot from the right boards and beat Georgiev who was tracking the puck. 39 seconds later Kasperi Kapanen scored on a breakaway. In some ways it was a lucky goal. The Rangers had possession and tried to headman the puck down the boards. Evgeni Malkin got to it first, passed it to Jared McCann who just lofted the puck towards the Ranger zone. K’Andre Miller tried to get the puck with his stick, but he then fell down giving Kapanen a clean break and then he undressed Georgiev.
22 seconds later, Brian Dumoulin headmanned the puck to Sidney Crosby who broke through Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren and he put the shot over Georgiev’s shoulder. While it was a good shot by a great player, it was a shot that Georgiev could have stopped.
THREE PENGUINS GOALS IN JUST 1:01.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 8, 2021
Yeah, you heard that right. pic.twitter.com/TrsFdRilRk
Quinn called a timeout and they replaced Georgiev with Kinkaid.
What was most frustrating about the two goals was the Rangers won both faceoffs after the goals, but could muster no offensive zone time. The Penguins got possession, turned the puck around and scored.
What followed was a scoreless second period.Kinkaid made a few saves including the stop on a Jake Guentzel breakaway.
🏒🚫🥅@Blockaid1 pic.twitter.com/UkykamFZCs
— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) March 8, 2021
The Rangers took a too many men on the ice penalty and had to kill a brief four second five on three when Zibanejad went off for slashing. The penalty kill gave the Rangers some life, but they couldn’t get enough shots on DeSmith.
The third period was one sided as the Penguins kept the Rangers from mounting any kind of attack and the Rangers reverted to their pass-happy style of play. They had a few opportunities including a post by Zibanejd, but the Penguins added goals by Evgeni Malkin and Zach Aston-Reese. The Malkin goal was unstoppable and Aston-Reese was on a second effort by the Pens winger.
The Penguins played a textbook defensive game, holding the Rangers to only 13 goals over the last two periods. It was a night when the better team won, emphatically.
Notes on the game
In the tale of two games storyline, the Rangers had nine shots on goal in the first 15 minutes of the game and 15 shots over the last 45 minutes.
The three goals in 61 seconds is nowhere near the NHL record of 20 seconds by he Boston Bruins nor is it close to the fastest three goals against the Rangers. Bill Mosienko of the Black Hawks scored three goals in 21 seconds against the Rangers in 1953.
Pavel Buchnevich’s assist in the first period was the 100th point of his career. It also gave him the team lead in scoring with 19 points.
Zibanejad’s first period goal was his first goal at even strength this season with his first goal on the power play and his second a shorthanded empty net goal. Coming in his 23rd game of the season, it has never taken him so long to get his first 5v5 goal. It took him 13 games in his rookie season when he was with the Ottawa Senators.
For Keith Kinkaid, this was his first NHL game since November 30, 2019 when he lost in overtime while with the Montreal Canadiens.
Kinkaid is the second New York Ranger to wear uniform #71. The first was forward Mike Rupp. Kinkaid is from Long Island and when he plays with Tony Bitetto and Adam Fox it could be first time that three Long Islanders play in a game for the Rangers. After the game, Quinn said he coached Kinkaid on the the US junior nationals team and new him when he was playing for Union College.
The Rangers killed all three penalties to preserve their streak. They’ve have not allowed three PP goals in 53 opportunities, though the Marino goal was just two seconds away from being a PP goal.
The Rangers drew only one penalty in the game,in the first period.
Quinn again rolled four lines with no forward logging more than 19:18 Adam Fox led all skaters with 23:04.
In his return to the lineup, Jacob Trouba logged 21:32 and added an assist on the lone Rangers goal.
Phil Di Giuseppe replaced Colin Blackwell in the lineup and played under ten minutes. When asked why, Quinn said that Blackwell had had some tough outings. While he might have struggled a bit, the Rangers could have used his shoot first mentality in the last two periods.
The Rangers registered 43 hits with six each attributed to DiGiuseppe, Julien Gauthier and Chris Kreider. The Rangers have had more than 43 hits only 20 times since the NHL started keeping those records in 2005-06.
This was the first time the Rangers have played on two consecutive days, the last team in the NHL to do so. They have back-to-back games against the Capitals at the end of next week.
Kasperi Kapanen had three points and now has two goals and six points in five games against New York to lead the team.
My 3 Ranger stars of the game
Keith Kincaid
came into cold and kept the Rangers in this game. He made 16 saves on 18 shots in just under 43 minutes of play. Some of the stops were fabulous.
Kinkaid standing tall in there pic.twitter.com/uhlcs9vjdY
— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) March 8, 2021
The official three stars
- Kasperi Kapanen
- Evgeni Malkin
- Sidney Crosby
East Division
Scores
Penguins 5, Rangers 1
Islanders 5, Sabres 2
Capitals 3, Flyers 1
Devils 1, Bruins 0
Standings
1- Islanders 25 15-6-4 34 points
2- Washington 24 14-6-4 32 points
3- Boston 22 13-6-3 29 points
4- Pittsburgh 24 14-9-1 29 points
5- Philadelphia 22 12-7-3 27 points
6- Rangers 23 0-10-3 23 points
7- New Jersey 21 8-11-2 18 points
8- Buffalo 23 6-14-3 15 points
What’s next
The Rangers have a rematch on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh in a game they really need to win. The game will start at 6pm due to national television constraints.
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