A wild finish to a great 3-2 win over the Penguins

About the game

The Rangers knew the Penguins would come out hard based on the last loss.  Surprisingly, it was New York that dominated the first period.  Jacob Trouba had three excellent shots and also hit a post.  The team was swarming, but they couldn’t break through.  The Rangers had 16 of the first 20 shot attempts in the game.

Of course, it was the Penguins who got on the scoreboard first when Brian Boyle tipped in a Brian Dumoulin shot from the point at the 14:24 mark.  The goal didn’t seem to faze them as they continued their outstanding play.  They finished the period with 20 shot attempts to 12 for the Penguins.  The Rangers outshot Pittsburgh 9-5.

It was more of the same in the second period, though they had to withstand a penalty to Ryan Lindgren at 9:45.  The penalty kill was outstanding, allowing only two shots.

Then it was the Rangers turn to score and it came off an absolutely tremendous shift in the Pittsburgh zone. First it was Chytil doing the board work to pin the Penguins in, then Jacob Trouba did a great job keeping the puck in the zone.  The Rangers were in the Penguins zone for 42 seconds, allowing the Rangers to change their forwards and it was Mika Zibanejad who made a brilliant pass to Frank Vatrano who put it under Tristan Jarry at 13:32.

Three and a half minutes later, it was the second line that took over.  Andrew Copp led an odd man rush into the Pens zone and fed Artemi Panarin who passed to an open Braden Schneider who had joined the rush.   Schneider didn’t waste any time, scoring his second NHL goal.

At the end of the second period, there was a scrum after a hard check by Ryan Lindgren that was answered by a cross check by Jake Guentzel.  Mike Matheson stepped in and got an additional two minutes giving the Rangers their first power play and they took advantage.

The Blueshirts started the third period with the power play and it took just 66 seconds for Chris Kreider to score his 23rd power play goal this season.

Adam Fox took a shot from the blue line and it bounced off the boards right to Kreider who put it past Jarry.

The Rangers looked like they had the game firmly in hand, but they never make it easy. Barclay Goodrow took a tripping penalty five minutes into the period that the Rangers killed off easily, but Andrew Copp took a tripping penalty and the Penguins took advantage with Sidney Crosby scoring on a wicked shot from the blue line.

So, it was a one-goal game 9:23 left and it set up an unbelievably wacky final two minutes.  The Penguins were pressing hard and after an icing with 2:32 left, they pulled Tristan Jarry and what followed was 152 minutes of insanity.

The Rangers repulsed several shot attempts by the Penguins and then had a series of opportunities to score into the empty net.  Chris Kreider had a shot deflected by Malkin,  Zibanejad shot the puck wide on an open shot.  Sidney Crosby played goal and stopped another Kreider shot and Barclay Goodrow hit the post. .

That left the Penguins with one more push to tie the score and it became the Shesterkin show with his best stop a point blank save on Jake Guentzel with 26 seconds left.

It was a wild finish to a great game.

Here is a video recap of the game: