The Rangers after a horrific first period rebounded to pull out the thrilling 2-1 overtime victory over the Penguins. That win gave them a commanding 3-1 lead in their playoff series. Game Five will be Friday night at MSG.
New York basically didn’t show up in the first, as Pittsburgh controlled play. Shots were 8-2 with the first one coming 11:35 into the first on a 1-on-3 shot by Derek Stepan from the outside. The Rangers were lucky to be down just 1-0 on the deflection by Patric Hornqvist off a Ben Lovejoy shot with tons of traffic in front of Henrik Lundqvist just 2:22 into the frame.
To a man, New York knew just how bad they were. Every player indicated similar after the game. The captain summed it up best:
“It was as ugly as it gets. We were awful,… said Ryan McDonagh. “Our legs weren’t moving, we weren’t playing anywhere close to the way we needed.…
What also helped cause the turnaround was AV reportedly ripping into his team in the first intermission. Of course, in typical AV fashion he declined to talk about it and didn’t even acknowledge he had done it. It’s a further example of just how different this coach is compared to the prior one. With Torts, it seemed at times to be all about him and the system was reflection of him. For AV, it’s about the players, not him and he coaches and talks that way.
It the Rangers about half the second period to get their legs, but when they did, they started controlling play. The goal was a result of hard work and grit, started with skill. Mats Zuccarello went cross-ice to McD, who dropped it to Nash and smartly threw it in front where there was traffic in front of Marc-Andre Fleury. Derick Brassard stuck with the play even after his first forays were stopped, getting enough of it to just sneak it over the goal line and even the contest at 17:15 of the period.
Brassard loves facing the Penguins, as he has 21 points in 21 games against them. In addition, you can see the growth in him since he came to NY in April 2013 in the Marian Gaborik deal. He has become another one of the young, veteran leaders on this team. The five-year deal he signed this off-season right now is looking like a veritable bargain.
The third period was a slogfest with little action, save for late in the period. Lundqvist did the “should I come out or shouldn’t I come out and make a decision late routine.… Fortunately, Dan Girardi bailed out his goalie, preventing a goal with a bit over half-a-minute to go in the game, helping it to reach overtime. That’s where the kid won it.
Kevin Hayes had been having a rough series. In the first period, he made a bad pass to Keith Yandle, thwarting a 3-on-2 chance, which ended up leading to Pittsburgh’s goal. But as the game wore on, the Carl Hagelin-Hayes-Martin St. Louis trio picked up their play, capped by the game-winner. Yandle threw the puck around the boards where MSL got position on Lovejoy to corral the puck. He got it in front to Hagelin, who was unable to get a clean shot but put across the crease past a prone Maxim Lapierre and under the arm of Fleury. Hayes, who had inside position, banged it home at 3:14 of overtime becoming the first rookie in Rangers history to score a game-winning, overtime goal.
The Rangers defense throughout was good. It’s hard to find anyone of the six who did not play well. Boyle was very strong, so with G and McD. Matt Hunwick was solid as was Marc Staal and Yandle. Kevin Klein is expected to practice today at 1pm and could be cleared to play Friday. If so, who sits for him? My expectation is Hunwick, though he has acquitted himself nicely since Klein went out March 11.
Lundqvist, other than the mental lapse, was real good again. He had no shot on the goal but stoned everything else. Four games, four goals allowed, hard to take issue with that.
The power play was once again powerless. The Rangers went the same 0-for-3 as the Penguins but generated just one shot and are now just 2-for-17 (11.8 percent) in the series. This is a major area of weakness that needs to get cleaned, especially if they advance, since making teams pay shorthanded would likely free up a ton of room on the ice as the opponents will be reluctant to take dumb penalties and could reduce some of the tight checking.
The series isn’t over. In case anyone forget, New York rallied from 3-1 down last year to win their series against Pittsburgh. In addition, we saw what happened in Game 5 in Montreal last season and in the Cup Finals in 1994. The fourth win is always the hardest, but just find a way to win, as the Rangers have done all year. Disptatch Pittsburgh, get a bit more rest and prepare for the winner of the Islanders-Capitals series.