NHL PO - Round 1 Game 2 - Pittsburgh Penguins @ NY Rangers 4-3 - 04/18

The Pittsburgh Penguins talked confidently after Game 1 about how they felt they could skate with, score against, and defeat the New York Rangers. It wasn't just lip service. Sidney Crosby broke out of his scoring slump in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with two goals, the Penguins scored twice on the power play, and Pittsburgh survived being shorthanded seven times in a 4-3 win against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round. Crosby had one goal in his previous 19 playoff games. He scored two in a span of 4:39 late in the second period to give the Penguins a 3-1 lead. Chris Kunitz and Brandon Sutter scored power-play goals for Pittsburgh. Kunitz had an assist on Crosby's second goal and Sutter's goal; Sutter had an assist on Kunitz's goal. The Penguins were 6-for-7 on the penalty kill and are 10-for-12 in the first two games of the series, and their power play has matched the Rangers by going 2-for-5. Fleury made 23 saves, including 12 against the Rangers' power play. Derek Stepan, Derick Brassard and Rick Nash scored for the Rangers. Goalie Henrik Lundqvist made 18 saves. Nash's goal came with 5.1 seconds remaining in the third period. The Rangers scored a power-play goal but lost Game 2 because they couldn't capitalize more often with the man-advantage. The Penguins' penalty problems caught up with them early in the third period when Brassard scored a power-play goal off a rebound of Mats Zuccarello's shot to make it 3-2 at 3:16. The Rangers changed the look on that power play to open more shooting lanes and it worked. They had seven shots on goal and 10 total shot attempts. New York had another power play, its seventh, at 5:46, when Sutter went off for hooking Keith Yandle. Stepan hit the post, but the Penguins preserved the one-goal lead. Kunitz scored his power-play goal, Pittsburgh's second of the game, less than two minutes after Sutter came out of the box. It wound up being the game-winner because of Nash's late goal. The Penguins carried a 3-1 lead into the third period thanks to three goals in the final 10 minutes of the second, including the two from Crosby.

Crosby gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead at 14:07, when he gained inside position on Ryan McDonagh and scored on a rebound. Crosby scored again at 18:46 when he got in ahead of Rangers left wing J.T. Miller and reached his stick out to redirect Kunitz's crossing pass. Crosby last scored a playoff goal in Game 3 of the second round against the Rangers last May 5; that ended a 13-game drought. Stepan gave New York the lead at 17:05 of the first period, but Pittsburgh tied it 1-1 on Sutter's power-play goal at 10:01 of the second. Sutter hit the post with a shot on a shorthanded breakaway at 6:48. Later, after Steve Downie inadvertently blocked Kunitz's shot, the puck popped into the air and bounced on the ice right in front of Sutter. The Penguins were confident they could even the series before it shifted to Pittsburgh. They were right, even if they lived on the edge again.

Pens Quotes

Sidney Crosby: "It's nice to get rewarded. Sometimes in the playoffs you play well and you don't always get the result you want. I thought we continued from the end of last game (a 2-1 loss). I thought we were more aggressive at the end of last game and improved that [Saturday]."

Ian Cole: "[The Rangers] are obviously a team that has won the Presidents' Trophy, they're a great team, but you've seen the parity across this League this year, the past couple years, and any team can beat any team on any given night. Obviously it's a lot harder to do it four times in a seven-game series, but we have a very good team led by Sidney Crosby and stopped on the back end by Marc-Andre Fleury, so we're confident we can play with anybody. Absolutely too many penalties. I mean, I took two of them. Without a doubt too many penalties, but a heck of a job getting it done."

Brandon Sutter: "We [have to] be a little bit smarter for sure, especially stick penalties, myself included. We have to get those stick penalties out. It just popped up and I managed to whack it in. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come."

Marc-Andre Fleury: "Special teams are such a big key in the playoffs and I can't say enough good things about the penalty kill in front of me, blocking shots and helping me around the net. The PP came up big with two goals. That's the difference between winning and losing."


Penalties

1st Period
11:52 PIT	Ian Cole  Hi-sticking against  J.T. Miller
19:21 PIT	Chris Kunitz  Hi-sticking against  Rick Nash
2nd Period
05:29 PIT	Patric Hornqvist  Slashing against  Chris Kreider
08:12 NYR	Carl Hagelin  Tripping against  Taylor Chorney
10:47 PIT	Nick Spaling  Boarding against  Matt Hunwick
16:04 PIT	Ian Cole  Hooking against  Derick Brassard
3rd Period
01:44 PIT	Blake Comeau  Slashing against  Marc Staal
05:46 PIT	Brandon Sutter  Hooking against  Matt Hunwick
07:54 NYR	Kevin Hayes  Hooking against  Taylor Chorney
10:04 NYR	Keith Yandle  Cross checking against  Blake Comeau
17:37 NYR	Chris Kreider  Tripping against  Ian Cole