Penguins Head Back to Pittsburgh With Series Even at 1-1
The Rangers won Game 2 by a score of 5-2 on Thursday at Madison Square Garden
Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby scored for the Penguins, while Louis Domingue made 35 saves. Down at the other end, Igor Shesterkin stopped 39 shots, while Andrew Copp, Ryan Strome, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin and Frank Vatrano scored for New York.
OVERALL ASSESSMENT
This was actually a pretty even game between the teams, certainly much closer than the score would indicate, though Pittsburgh did find themselves chasing yet again.
"I think our starts, they're still lacking a bit," Crosby said. "So we got to find a way to come out of the gates a little better, and hopefully being at home will do that for us."
They went down 3-1 just over halfway through the second, but the captain scored arguably one of the best goals of his career - which is saying something! - with just 1:26 left in the period. It was a critical goal at a critical time, and the Penguins carried that momentum over into the third.
They came out absolutely flying, registering the first eight shots of the period and forcing Shesterkin, the Vezina Trophy favorite, to come up with virtually identical back-door stops on opposite posts on the Two-Headed Monster.
That allowed New York to go the other way and regain their two-goal lead when Panarin's centering pass from behind the net banked off Mike Matheson's skate and in on what was just a really tough break for Pittsburgh.
"Obviously you don't want to get down two, we've done that a couple times now," Crosby said. "It's not something we want to make a habit of. But I thought we get that late one, and then we have some really good chances there early in the third that we can't convert. Then they got a bounce. That's really what it came down to. … It was a close game."
The area with the most room for improvement remains special teams. The Penguins got the first two power plays of the game in the first period, and didn't convert. "We had a couple chances early to get some momentum, and we didn't," Crosby said.
And Pittsburgh's penalty kill continues to struggle. To be fair, the Rangers have a dynamic power play that's been a difference maker for them all year, but the Penguins are more than capable of shutting them down. They finished third in the league during the regular season for a reason, and just need to get back to doing what had brought them success for most of the year.
"We're not winning many faceoffs, so they're getting a lot of zone time," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "We're not getting clears. We haven't done a very good job limiting their own time. I think we've got to do a better job with our pressure when we have an opportunity. They've just spent too much time in our endzone. We've got to do a better job."
But one of the positives the Penguins can take back to Pittsburgh for Games 3 and 4 is that they've done well at even strength, which is something that both Sullivan and Crosby mentioned.
"I thought 5-on-5 tonight, for the most part, we were pretty good," Sullivan said. "Listen, we're playing a real good opponent. They're a good team, too. When we were in our endzone, I thought we defended hard. We had some looks on the offensive zone, as well. I think we can take a lot of positives."
OTHER THOUGHTS
- DOMINGUE DOES A "HECK OF A JOB"
Pittsburgh's No. 3 netminder, thrust into the starting role with lower-body injuries to both Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith, earned some well-deserved praise from his teammates following his performance tonight.
The score certainly doesn't reflect how well Domingue actually played. He did his job, which was give the Penguins a chance to win.
"He was great for us," Danton Heinen said. "We have a lot of confidence in him, he was solid back there. He's up for the challenge."
The 30-year-old netminder looked calm and confident right from the start despite the stakes surrounding this game. You could tell he wasn't overwhelmed at all, just staying in the moment and battling to make that next stop.
After the Rangers opened the scoring 6:50 in, with Copp's shot deflecting in off one of the three bodies in Domingue's crease, he followed that up with a HUGE and timely save on Mika Zibanejad. That allowed the Penguins to go the other way and tie it up with a goal from Guentzel.
Domingue continued his strong play into the second, when New York got a couple power plays of their own. They converted the first one with a deflection from Kreider for that abovementioned 3-1 lead, but Domingue was Pittsburgh's best penalty killer on the second one, keeping the deficit manageable so that Crosby could then head down and score.
"I think he made some big saves, especially when it was a one, two-goal difference there that kept us in it," Crosby said. "You look at that fourth one, it's a bad bounce, a couple tips there. He did a heck of a job. He's competing in there and giving us a chance. It would've been nice to give him some help there and tie it up and see what happened, but he was great tonight."
- TOP LINE CONTINUES DOMINANT PLAY
Before the series began, Guentzel said he believed that when his line with Crosby and Bryan Rust was at its best, they can be one of the top lines in the league. That's been the case against the Rangers, with the trio being virtually unstoppable.
They've scored five of Pittsburgh's six total goals thus far, with Evgeni Malkin's triple OT winner the only one they weren't on the ice for. After combining for three goals and seven points in Game 1 (Rust: 1G-2A-3PTS; Guentzel 2G; Crosby 2A); they netted both of Pittsburgh's tallies tonight.
"I think you play to your strengths and try to create turnovers and put pressure in regards to who you're playing," Crosby said. "And those are always things that allow you to create offense."
But of course, moving forward, these three are going to need some help in the form of secondary scoring. That's part of the reason general manager Ron Hextall went out and acquired Rickard Rakell at the trade deadline, but unfortunately, the two-time 30-goal scorer was injured from a high hit in the first period of Game 1 and is currently listed as day-to-day.
His absence has had a ripple effect, but despite the moving parts, Sullivan feels that every line has gotten quality looks. He singled out Kasperi Kapanen - who moved into Rakell's spot alongside Malkin on the second line - as someone who's right there.
"Obviously, when you get scoring throughout your lineup, it helps your cause, for sure," Sullivan said. "It helps you win games, but I think these guys are trying to play the game the right way. They're competing hard out there. They're trying to get pucks to the net. They've had some pretty good looks."
- LINEUP CHANGES/PLAYOFF DEBUTS
After taking part in the optional skate this morning, it was determined that defenseman Brian Dumoulin couldn't go for the game, with his status listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Mark Friedman slotted in on the blue line to make his NHL playoff debut.
Drew O'Connor also made his NHL postseason debut with Rakell ruled out and Jason Zucker (lower-body) still not ready to return to the lineup.
Here's how the lineup looked:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Heinen-Malkin-Kapanen
McGinn-Carter-Rodrigues
Boyle-Blueger-O'Connor
Matheson-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel
