Jarry Preserves Penguins Posteriors from Punchless Panarinless Rangers

I tuned into the Penguin game slightly late. Our favorite flightless fowl had built up quite a large lead in shots but found themselves down on the scoreboard 1 – 0. Much maligned, former Pittsburgh Penguins‘ Defensemen Jack Johnson had staked the New York Rangers to that lead a point shot (not going to really call it a blast from the point) that seemed to have eyes on it. The shot seemed to have eyes on it, navigating its way through Zach Aston-Reece’s and Kevin Rooney’s skates before deflecting slightly off John Marino (looked like his calf or Achilles’ tendon. Our Penguins seemed to be dominating play but found themselves trailing a Rangers team without their big gun Artemi Panarin.

Fortunately for the faithful, only a couple of minutes after I settled into my favorite chair, with my favorite potable, Captain Sidney Crosby up a blue and white clearing attempt and fed a sweet cross ice, backhand pass just inside the Rangers blue line to his port side winger, Jake Guentzel. Gliding down to the face-off circle with a hesitant defender who looked like he couldn’t decide whether to challenge Guentzel or not, the Left Wing sniped a wrist shot over Keith Kincaid’s glove.

When the buzzer sounded to end the first period, Mike Sullivan’s boys held a 16 – 7 shot advantage but needed a clutch last minute shot to pull even, 1 – 1 in Goals (G)

The Rangers started to chip away at the shot disparity in the second period, topping our Penguins 13 – 10, but found themselves falling behind in the G department to the tune of 3 – 1. Mike Matheson tripped up the Rangers Brett Howden and I thought the Penguins Defensemen had opened the door a crack for the visitors to regain their lead, but Teddy Blueger came to the rescue. The recently derided Penalty Kill (PK) unit stepped up big-time. Marino stopped a Rangers’ zone entry along his right-side boards and whipped the puck across ice to his partner Brian Dumoulin, away from the bad guys. Dumoulin quickly snapped the puck up ice to Brandon Tanev who was circling at the Rangers’ blue line like a Vulture. Tanev cruised into the zone from roughly center point toward the left wing while his partner in crime Blueger followed him. Tanev dropped the puck back to his Center as the tandem crisscrossed down toward the goal. The Rangers’ PK tried to pressure the puck to force the Penguins into a giveaway (Gv) but Blueger wouldn’t be forced into a bad pass. Instead he held on to the puck while he swooped down the wing and powered his way across the crease, forcing the puck past a weak Kincaid stick. In the end all 4 defenders in the PK touched the puck and our Penguins took the lead rather than fold under the penalty.

With Blueger starting the second period off with a G, Kasperi Kapanen closed out the second frame in like fashion. The Penguins second line, sans Jason Zucker, took command of the puck inside the Rangers zone with just about 70 ticks left on the clock and dominated their guests. Kapanen, Evgeni Malkin, and Evan Rodrigues looked like they were on the Powerplay as they skated circles around the Rangers defenders. Kris Letang shot the puck wide of the Rangers net and the puck bounced up the left wing boards. Dumoulin raced over to keep the puck alive, throwing it behind the net. Rodrigues retrieved it drifting backward toward the right corner, drawing attention that way. He then fed the puck back to Malkin who had circled behind the net, following the puck. Rodrigues’ drifting opened a seam for Malkin to slip up above the goal line and find Kapanen in the right circle. Kapanen toed the puck around a defender as he drifted back across the crease to the left. Kincaid tried to follow the puck but Kapanen ripped a wrist shot back against the grain over Kincaid’s glove and the good guys were up 3 – 1.

But now it was time for Tristan Jarry to shine. After a shaky start to the season, Jarry dazzled as he defended against the Rangers deluge. If the Penguins dominated the first frame, out shooting the Rangers 16 – 7, then I have no adjective for the Rangers play in the third. They pummeled our Penguins defense with 15 shots to 1 – and that lone shot came from the stick of Crosby into an empty net. Announcers Steve Mears and Bob Errey called the saves Jarry was making 10 bell saves. They were not 10 bell saves they were more like 50 bell saves. Jarry stood on his head and then some to keep last night’s game from going into Over-Time (OT). Crosby was given 1st star honors for the game but for my money, Jarry’s stoning of those point-blank shots earned him that award.

Odds and Sods
Kapanen’s Goal was his 7th of the season. He has been a 5-on-5 beast this season. He is crushing his best Goals per 60 minutes (G/60) and Assists per 60 minutes (A/60). His previous best G/60 was 0.96. This year he is averaging 1.01. As for his A/60, last season he upped his mark to 1.20. This season he is currently riding at 2.03. He keeps up this pace then he definitely was worth the price Jim Rutherford paid for him.

Colton Sceviour had been waived by the Penguins not that many hours before last night’s game but found himself in the line-up. In the first period, he was given only 2 shifts and the team held a hefty 16 – 7 shot advantage. In the 3rd period he was given 7 shifts. The Rangers pummeled the team 15 – 1 in shots. Things that make you go hmm…..

Since the Jason Zucker injury much maligned Evgeni Malkin and newcomer and Malkin line-mate Kasperi Kapanen are leading the team in 5 – on – 5 points with 7 each. Jared McCann, the 3rd member of that line – much of the time, until his injury, checks in, tied with Letang, just behind Malkin and Kapanen with 5 points. Just saying…..

The Rangers were without super star Artemi Panarin last night, so give them credit, they could have grabbed at least 1 point off us had he played.

Next Up – The Buffalo Sabres tomorrow night at 7:00 pm, in Buffalo.