Oh no. Here we go again.
Those were my thoughts last night as I watched the Rangers celebrate Chris Kreider’s second-period goal on the big-screen TV at Wright’s Gym.
Indeed, the game was following an all-too-familiar script. An on-ice version of the movie Groundhog Day, where the same scenario keeps repeating. One that’s resulted in a horrid 2-10-1 mark for the Penguins in their past 13 regular-and-postseason games against New York prior to Thursday’s contest.
Tight. Low scoring. Can’t beat Henrik Lundqvist to save our…(souls).
Then something wonderful happened. With a flash of his marvelous hands, Pens captain Sidney Crosby poked a wayward carom off the end boards into King Henrik’s pads. Lundqvist did the rest…propelling the puck over his own goal line with an awkward, backward tumble.
First goal we’d scored against him in nearly 100 minutes.
Like the Berlin Wall, Lundqvist’s aura of invincibility crumbled. Actually, he’d shown signs of mortality minutes earlier, when the perennial All-Star flipped his goal cage off its moorings in a pique after being run over by teammate Ryan McDonagh. Left for road kill by the referees, he earned a delay of game penalty and suffered a neck injury to boot.
Sensing No. 30’s sudden vulnerability, the Penguins pounced. Twenty-one seconds after Sid’s watershed tally, Evgeni Malkin jumped on a juicy Trevor Daley rebound and ripped it through a tiny opening under Lundqvist’s right arm. With 34 tics left on the second-period clock and Keith Yandle in the box, Patric Hornqvist redirected Phil Kessel’s low laser with a Swedish safecracker’s touch past his countryman for his fifth goal in three games and a 3-1 Penguins lead.
Three goals in 99 seconds. Textbook execution of coach Mike Sullivan’s plan to get bodies and pucks to the net.
“We tried to play a solid game and go to the net,” said Malkin, who led the way with a three-point effort. “It’s like the playoffs.”
Mind you, it wasn’t a perfect game. Although Chris Kunitz and Ian Cole rattled Rangers Tanner Glass and Viktor Stalberg with booming checks, New York outhit us by a wide margin (37-24). They won the faceoff battle, too. The Pens sat back a little too much for my taste in the third period, shifting into prevent-defense mode and allowing the Broadway Blueshirts to carry the play.
Fortunately, Marc-Andre Fleury—with a little help from his friends—held the visitors in check (27 saves on the night). Still, I didn’t exhale until Kessel slid his 20th goal into a vacant Rangers net with about two minutes remaining. Then I clapped my hands and let out a victory whoop.
Bottom line? We beat the Rangers. And—never mind how—we chased Lundqvist.
How sweet it is!
Porter Injured
Kevin Porter left the game late in the first period after becoming entangled with Stalberg in the corner. The Detroit native fell and hit the boards skates-first, causing his right leg to bend at an odd angle.
Porter underwent ankle surgery today and is expected to miss 12 weeks, effectively ending his season.
In 41 games for the Pens the versatile forward tallied three assists while filling a variety of roles. The former Hobey Baker winner is fourth among black-and-gold forwards with 96 hits. Porter won 50.6 percent of his faceoffs.
Archibald Summoned
In a corresponding move, the Penguins called up right wing Josh Archibald from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton today.
Known for his blazing speed, the 5’10” 176-pounder was the Pens’ sixth-round choice out of the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2011. A big-time scorer in college, the 2014 Hobey Baker finalist tallied eight goals and six assists in 51 games with the Baby Pens this season.
Hey Rick,
King Henrik hasn’t really been King this year. I have him on my fantasy team and he has been killing me (except when he had been playing the Pens). He has had a couple of rocky stretches; one in November and one in December where he was giving up 4 and 5 goals per game. In fact King Henrik really wasn’t King against the Pens until that play-off collapse a couple of years ago. In 2012-2013 he was 1-3-1 with a GAA of 2.63 against them and in the regular season 2013-2014 although posting a 2-1-1 record he was giving up 2.88 goals per game. After that play-off debacle he posted a 1.69 GAA against the Pens and was 3-0-1.
Hopefully, Henry’s little hissy-fit is now a sign the curse is in reverse.
Interestingly enough though, the Rangers answered the bell and beat the Caps on the back end of their back-to-back games.
Not saying the Caps are about to tumble, but they do have a longer history of play-off collapses than the Pens, maybe as long as the Bengals.
Hi Rick,
Good job guys ! The Pen’s played well against the Rangers and they deserved the win. This was an important psychological win for the team.They need these types of victories as morale boosters moving forward. We both know that the Pen’s,as currently configured are probably ranked 7 th to 10 th in the league in terms of talent and execution.By defeating teams ” rated better than us “, it builds confidence, which leads to further victories and we actually end up as a top 4-5 team on the ice,although on paper we are a 7 th to 10 th rated team.
I like to call it playing above our weight class. It takes lots of hard work to accomplish this.
Keep it up guys,we have a long month ahead and the only way we win is everybody giving 110 %, every game ! There are no free rides.
In our remaining schedule ,there are really about 7 games we can take for granted. Every other game,the opponent we play can BEAT US if we do not bring our A game, every night. You can not always rely on MAF to save you.
As I stated earlier,now the real hockey starts.
Go Pen’s.
Cheers.
Hi Rick,
I had today’s Calgary game counted as 1 of the 7 games we could take for granted? It goes to show you what a hot Goalie and an energetic young line up can do.?? These types of losses just motivates the weaker teams to play harder against the Pen’s.
I watched the game on Hockey Night in Canada on CBC,( I prefer to listen to Mike Lange…he does a better job), and they were saying how the Flames simply out worked the Pen’s and kept the big guns to the outside.
Watching the game I had to agree plus there were several bad d lapses that could have resulted in more goals if the Flames were a better team.
Let’s go Pen’s…
Hey Jim,
Yeah…it was one of those games. Aside from Crosby, Letang and (maybe) a couple of other guys, they just didn’t have any jump. Arguably the most lifeless they’ve looked under Sullivan. A stinko effort.
You’ll have that once in a while. Still, it couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Pens lost all the momentum they gained from the huge win over the Rangers. Now they really need to beat New Jersey today…a team that traditionally gives them fits.
If the Rangers game represented a turnaround of sorts, the Pens may come to rue yesterday’s loss. Especially if it affects their playoff standing or contributes to an unfavorable postseason matchup.
What were the Flames—1-9-1 in their previous 11? All they did was show up and compete. Sure wish the Pens had done the same.