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PITTSBURGH - It's all over. No, wait. No it's not.
The Rangers thought they had a 3-2 shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at CONSOL Energy Center on Saturday night, until replays showed that Blueshirts defenseman Dan Boyle had required a rebound chance to tap the puck past Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Most players on both teams were already down their tunnels, but once the shootout goal was disallowed, they came back onto the ice, Brandon Sutter beat Henrik Lundqvist, Rick Nash couldn't bury, and suddenly the Rangers walked back into their locker room as losers.
The Rangers (7-6-4) fell to 1-4 this season in the shootout. They got there in a physical affair.
First, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby slammed his stick one-handed against the glass in Saturday night's second period when he didn't get a call. No unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was given.
Then Pens center Evgeni Malkin speared Rangers left wing Carl Hagelin in front of the benches. Then Crosby stepped on top of Lundqvist, toppling onto his back in the crease. The whistles stayed quiet.
What happens in physical games when officials don't draw lines in the ice? Injuries occur, and sure enough, late in the third period, Malkin took a reckless run at Dan Girardi, leaving him motionless behind the net before the Rangers defenseman slowly rose and walked wobbly into the Blueshirts' locker room.
But here's the thing: These Rangers get up just as often as they fall down.
Girardi - no one is sure how - came back and played in overtime. Lundqvist stopped two overtime breakaways: Crosby 17 seconds in, and defenseman Kris Letang with 4.8 seconds to go.
The Rangers returned to CONSOL for the first time since May 13, when they won Game 7 of their second-round playoff series with the Penguins last spring, 2-1, to complete an improbable comeback from down, three games to one.
Gregory Shamus/NHLI via Getty Images
They just blew out the Penguins, 5-0, on Tuesday night at the Garden, but immediately regressed to their mistake-prone ways in Thursday night's 4-3 shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
Saturday night, they went to overtime for a seventh time in 17 games this season by surrendering yet another lead, 2-1, entering the second period. Incredibly, the Blueshirts have surrendered 13 of their 17 regulation leads this season through 17 games.
Malkin scored at 8:09 of the second period off a ghastly turnover by Boyle, who whiffed on the puck in his second game back from a broken right hand that kept him out 14 games. Boyle did have a power-play assist earlier, though, and also swept a puck out of Lundqvist's crease in the first period.
John Moore struggled badly with turnovers and defensive coverage, particularly in the first period, but the Rangers' top defensive pairing of Girardi and Marc Staal were on the ice when Pittsburgh opened the scoring.
Pens forward Blake Comeau took a one-timer off the rush from the left wing, and the goal at 14:12 was no one's fault but Lundqvist's, allowing the puck to sneak between his arm and torso.
Rangers forward Lee Stempniak, who was on the losing side of these teams' second-round playoff series last May, surged immediately back with a game-tying goal 15 seconds later. He tipped down a Girardi point shot, off a Hagelin second assist, and finished past Fleury.
Boyle's presence on the power play paid off to help New York take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. The defenseman, brought in this offseason mainly for his power play ability, blasted a shot from the point that Fleury saved. Nash shot a rebound, and then Derick Brassard made a deft and unselfish pass out from in front of the net to the right circle to St. Louis.
St. Louis buried his sixth goal of the season for his seventh point in seven games.
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, November 15, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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