Rangers 5-3 comeback win to force Game 6

The spring tutorial for the young New York Rangers continues as they played their first must win game and prevailed 5-3 to force a Game Six in Pittsburgh on Friday.  It was an unlikely result in a game that looked like a season ending loss with five minutes left in the second period and the Rangers down 2-0.

As wonderful as the result was, there was reason for concern.   Needing to get off to a good start, the Rangers took two penalties just 24 seconds into the game.  Once again, the Sidney Crosby line prevailed with Jake Guentzel scoring his sixth goal in four games to take the early lead. Another defensive breakdown by the Blueshirts resulted in Kris Letang’s goal and a 2-0 deficit.  Igor Shesterkin handed the Penguins the puck and they were able to tie the game after the Rangers had taken a 3-2 lead.  The Rangers weren’t able to take control of the game until Sidney Crosby was hurt and had to leave the game.

But the biggest issue was the fact that for almost 35 minutes the Rangers were unable to mount any kind of sustained forecheck or offense in a game that they had to win.  They were being schooled by the Pittsburgh Penguins, unable to put any pressure on Louis Domingue and looking completely ineffective offensively.

The Jekyll and Hyde Rangers waited until late in the second period to turn it on and when they did, they became an offensive tsunami. The shift when they scored their first goal was the first shift of sustained offense in the Penguins zone in the entire game.  It was a New York team we hadn’t seen for almost two periods.   This was the third time that has happened in this series with the Rangers being unstoppable on offensive.  They did it in the first period of Game One and the second period of Game Three.

The difference from those two games was that after that whirlwind of offense, they didn’t stop.  They kept pushing and did what they couldn’t do in those games, get the go ahead goal and hold the lead.

The kid line comes through

As they have all series, the kid line was the Rangers most effective.  Kaapo Kakko made an outstanding backhand pass from behind the net to Alexis Lafreniere who buried it .

The much maligned Filip Chytil was on the second power play unit and scored the game winner with the man advantage.

The trio finished with two goals and two assists and was the most effective line when the Rangers were being outplayed early in the game.

The Crosby narrative

9:15 minutes into the second period, Jacob Trouba laid out Sidney Crosby with one of his patented open ice hits.  Crosby had some difficulty getting back to the bench, played two more shifts and went to the locker room shortly after. He ended up never returning and played only 10:49.  After the game, Pittsburgh Coach Mike Sullivan hinted that the Trouba check on Crosby was a dirty hit.

The Pittsburgh press is calling for Jacob Trouba’s head. Pittsburgh fans are apoplectic over the hit. It didn’t help that Trouba took an elbowing penalty in the first minute of the game when he targeted Jake Guentzel with a high hit  Here’s another look.

It sure looks like it was bodycheck and Trouba was not headhunting.  There was no penalty on the hit. But because it was Crosby, there will be a brouhaha.

Crosby is one of the most elusive skaters on the planet.  He has a low center of gravity and is able to avoid most checks. It’s part of what makes him great, but on this play he was in a vulnerable position and he paid for it.

The top line still MIA

The top line continues to be missing in action offensively.  No points for Chris Kreider or Mika Zibanejad while Frank Vatrano notched an assist on Chytil’s power play goal when he was on the second unit.  Zibanejad’s play continues to perplex.  The Rangers need him to step up and score.  It is worth noting that Zibanejad was on the ice from over half of the five-on-three power play for the Penguins at the start of the game.  That’s an important contribution that shouldn’t be overlooked.

The Strome line finally woke up and it was that line that generated the first buzzsaw shift that resulted in the first Rangers goal.  Two and a half minutes later, they were back on with another dominant shift that resulted in Trouba’s goal.  Artemi Panarin continues to lead the team in scoring with two goals and six points.

Shesterkin bounces back

Igor Shesterkin still doesn’t look like himself, though the goals he allowed would have been tough to stop.  His worst play of the game was the careless pass that led to the Penguins third goal to tie the game. He tried to get the puck to Braden Schneider, but put the puck into Schneider’s feet and he lost the puck.

But it was in the third period that Shesterkin looked like the Vezina Trophy finalist.   He made 15 saves as the Penguins swarmed.  According to Natural Stat Trick the Pens had seven high danger chances in the third period and the Ranger netminder stopped them all.

Resilience

The Rangers have done it all season.  They have come back from behind repeatedly to win and despite showing no signs that they were capable of it for most of this series, they did it again.  Furthermore, they survived the gut punch of Jake Guentzel’s tying goal, just 13 seconds after they had taken the lead.

That is significant for Friday night when they go into a hostile PPG Paints Arena against a Penguins team that will be desperate to close out the series.

Now, it’s the Penguins facing the questions. What if Sidney Crosby is unavailable for Friday’s game?  And what should they do in goal if Tristan Jarry is ready to play again?

Team perplexing

Optimists will point to the second period as an example of how well the Rangers can play, that they can completely dominate the opposition and when they are going, they are unstoppable.  It got them an early lead in Game One and was almost a miracle comeback in Game Three.

Pessimists will tell you that that Rangers team has appeared only three times for three periods of domination in over 14 periods of hockey.   They have a point.

The question for the Rangers going into Friday night is whether they have learned the lesson of what it takes to win.  Or will they play a mediocre game with the belief that when they decide to turn it on they can score at will?

The good news is we have another game to find out.