Penguins vs Rangers

NEW YORK -- Forced to play with five defensemen when Brooks Orpik sustained an injury in the first period did very little to derail the Pittsburgh Penguins from exhibiting one of their better defensive efforts of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Penguins limited the New York Rangers to a season-low 15 shots and scored a shorthanded goal to add salt to the wound of a struggling power play en route to 4-2 victory in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference Second Round series at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night.

It was a battle of attrition and teamwork, particularly over the final 40 minutes when the Penguins allowed nine shots against goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

The win gives the Penguins a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series that resumes Friday with Game 5 at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh (7 p.m. ET; CBC, RDS, NBCSN).

NEW YORK -- Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik did not play after the first period against the New York Rangers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Second Round series at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.

NEW YORK -- That defenseman Kris Letang has keyed the Pittsburgh Penguins in their Eastern Conference Second Round series against the New York Rangers isn't entirely surprising.

Letang has provided a spark on Pittsburgh's vaunted rush, much as he has throughout his NHL career. The Penguins lead the best-of-7 series 2-1 heading into Game 4 at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS).

Letang had three points in Game 2, including the game-winning goal, before finishing Game 3 with a plus-1 rating and 24:31 in ice time, which ranked second on the team.

What is surprising is he's doing it slightly more than three months after having a stroke.

NEW YORK -- As Marc-Andre Fleury sat at his locker, smiling on occasion as the questions came fast and furious, he certainly didn't seem like a player who had just won his second straight shutout in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Pittsburgh Penguins' 29-year-old goalie appeared content to maintain the focus that enabled him to stop 57 straight shots in recording back-to-back wins on consecutive nights to help the Penguins to a 2-1 lead in their best-of-7 Eastern Conference Second Round series against the New York Rangers. Game 4 is Wednesday in New York (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS).

Fleury made 35 saves in a 2-0 victory Monday in Game 3 at Madison Square Garden, becoming the first Pittsburgh goalie with consecutive playoff shutouts. It's a feat he wasn't aware of and one that, to him, won't mean much if he isn't raising the Stanley Cup to end the season.

NEW YORK -- On paper at least, the New York Rangers appeared to do enough to earn a win against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Second Round series on Monday night.

Despite losing 2-0 on Monday to fall behind 2-1 in the best-of-7 series, New York outshot the Penguins 35-15, enjoyed long stretches of puck possession and swarmed around Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Even the Rangers' dormant power play, which went 0-for-5 and has now failed to score on 34 straight attempts, showed signs of life.

In the end, two opportunistic Penguins goals and Fleury's standout play proved to be the difference. But the strides the Rangers made in this game weren't lost on coaches and players.

PITTSBURGH -- All things being equal, Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said he'd love to have a nice wrist shot from the blue line right into his pads be the first shot he sees in a game.

Three penalty kills in the first seven minutes of a playoff game? He'd rather do without it, but that's what he faced in Game 2 of the Penguins' Eastern Conference Second Round series against the New York Rangers.

Helped by a strong effort from his penalty-killers, Fleury stopped the Rangers on their three early advantages, as well as a fourth power play in the second period, en route to a 3-0 win.

The victory evened the best-of-7 series 1-1, with Game 3 on Monday at Madison Square Garden (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS).

"Not the start we wanted, spending the first 10 minutes in the box," said Penguins center Brandon Sutter, who was second among Penguins forwards with 3:39 in shorthanded ice time. "We did a nice job of killing them off. Those were some of the better kills we had all playoffs."

PITTSBURGH -- The New York Rangers had the Pittsburgh Penguins on the ropes to start Game 2 of their Eastern Conference Second Round series. They just couldn't land a big blow.

New York failed to capitalize on several scoring chances during the first period of its 3-0 loss Sunday at Consol Energy Center, allowing the Penguins to escape to a scoreless intermission.

Rangers coach Alain Vigneault made adjustments to New York's struggling power play, including adding defenseman Anton Stralman to the second unit.

The impact wasn't noticeable.

"The power play had some looks. It could've given us momentum," Vigneault said. "We didn't finish, and the power play ultimately is my responsibility. I have to find the right trigger points here to make it work, and I'll spend the night trying to figure it out.

"I felt that they're a team that plays a real tight gap, and managing the puck through the neutral zone is one area that we need to be better."

PITTSBURGH -- Marc Staal said he never doubted.

Never gave up hope that despite the concussion, despite the serious eye injury, he could get back to being the player he was before. The one who was a first-round draft pick, who played in the 2011 NHL All-Star Game and was on his way to becoming the next great New York Rangers defenseman.

Now that he's fully healthy, the hockey world is seeing what Staal, 27, always believed would happen.

PITTSBURGH -- The New York Rangers were playing their fourth game in six days. With Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Second Round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime, it would have been difficult to blame them if they ran out of gas.

However, the Rangers found the energy to propel them to a 3-2 win against the Penguins.

New York carried play in the first period, taking a 2-0 lead, but when the Penguins ramped things up in the second, scoring twice and outshooting the Rangers 15-4, it looked like the final fumes were running out of their gas tank.

However, the Rangers continued to push. They were outshot 12-8 in the third period, but New York had the better of the scoring chances. And it was the same in overtime, when the Rangers had two of the three shots in the extra period, capped by Derick Brassard's goal at 3:06 of overtime.

"We came out with a great start tonight," New York defenseman Dan Girardi said. "We let it go in the second. We sat back and let them dictate play. We were lucky to survive that [period] with being tied. We had a good third and we had a good feeling going into overtime. We worked hard right off the bat, got a few chances and luckily one went in."

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Penguins came out flat. Again.

The Penguins have started slowly in more than half of their seven Stanley Cup Playoff games, but they took it to another level early on in an eventual 3-2 overtime loss to the New York Rangers in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Second Round series Friday.

The Penguins possibly played their least effective period of the postseason in the game's opening 20 minutes, resulting in a 2-0 deficit entering the first intermission. They were outshot 13-8 and seemed less like the team that had three days to rest and more like the one playing a third game in four days, as the Rangers were.

Pittsburgh responded with one of its better periods, drawing even at 2-2 heading into the third period, but cooled again before losing on Derick Brassard's overtime goal.

Against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Eastern Conference First Round, the Penguins faced multigoal deficits twice and won three games in which they surrendered the opening goal. They were not as fortunate against New York and realize they cannot consistently rely on come-from-behind wins if they are to advance to the Eastern Conference Final.

"Anytime you lose one game in a series where four knocks you out, I think your desperation just naturally goes up that much more," Pittsburgh defenseman Rob Scuderi said. "You want to play with it all the time, but the fact is, once you lose games in the playoffs and you start to feel the grip of death on your season, you start to play with a little more desperation.

"We're one loss closer to being out, and I hope we bring that level on the next game."