Penguins Battle to the Bitter End but Bow to Rangers in OT

I thought we were going to win. I really did.

As the game clock ticked down to six minutes remaining and our Penguins holding a 3-2 lead, we once again appeared to be in the driver’s seat. We were playing the right way as coach Mike Sullivan is fond of saying, applying constant pressure to the Rangers and Hart Trophy finalist Igor Shesterkin while doing an excellent job of insulating our own Tristan Jarry, playing his first game between the pipes in a month.

When the Rangers entered our zone, I wasn’t overly concerned. Then I noticed a helmetless Marcus Pettersson setting sail for our bench out of the corner of my eye. Putting a twist in my gut. (I discovered afterward that Pettersson’s helmet had been yanked off by Alexis Lafreniere, which should’ve resulted in a penalty.)

Kris Letang hopped over the boards and made a bee-line for our net, but it was already too late. Mika Zibanejad teed up the puck at the right faceoff dot and ripped a blistering drive past a stationary Letang and over Jarry’s glove and shoulder to knot the score at 3-3.

Perfect shot. Jarry had no chance.

I’ll state for the record that the rule requiring a helmetless player to immediately re-lid or exit the ice to avoid a penalty is absolute hogwash…a sham intended to make the NHL appear to care about player safety. The net effect is to hand the opposing team a power play, however brief.

Better the league abolish this rule and start handing out weightier sentences for head shots. But I digress.

Despite the unfortunate turn of events, I remained hopeful as the game went to overtime. After all, our Pens had piled up a commanding 43-27 edge in shots on goal through 60 minutes of play, to say nothing of a staggering 22-5 advantage in high-danger chances.

Considering all the adversity we’d faced and for the most part overcome in the series? Surely the hockey gods would smile upon us and bless us with a win.

Then hulking Rangers d-man K’Andre Miller swung around black-and-gold checker Brock McGinn and cut through the slot. Drawing a hooking penalty from the heretofore “Brock Star.”

While it’s hard to fault McGinn, Jarry appeared to have the net sealed off. Yet another self-inflicted wound.

We’d been dodging power-play bullets, three of them to be exact, all night and had even struck for a go-ahead shorty by Evan Rodrigues late in the second period. However, we’d rarely looked impressive on the PK, ceding the Blueshirts copious amounts of space high in our zone while rarely making a forceful play or clearing the puck.

A recipe for disaster.

And disaster, indeed, occurred. After playing catch with Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin skated unfettered to the top of the right circle and wired the puck through heavy traffic. In fairness to Jarry, when I viewed replays from behind the net, I had no idea how the puck got through the mob of humanity in front of him.

But got through it did. Bringing a series that held such promise for our Pens to a crushing and bitter end.

The Early Goals

The Rangers struck first at 7:36 of the opening frame, courtesy of a 2-on-1. After receiving a pass from Zibanejad, Chris Kreider had roughly half-a-continent’s worth of time and space and took full advantage, beating Jarry with a blast from the right faceoff dot.

Following a dismal early showing by our top unit, which resembled five pillars of salt, the second power-play unit struck for the third time in the series, courtesy of a four-minute high-sticking penalty to…you guessed it…Jacob Trouba. Rodrigues fed Jeff Carter in the right circle and the big guy fired on net. Perched at the side of the cage, Danton Heinen punched the rubber home with 1:09 left in the period. His third goal of the series.

The score stood at 1-1 until midway through the contest, when Kaapo Kakko (or Choco Taco as a hockey pal Billy Ellis likes to call him) was whistled for delay of game. Setting the stage for a breathtaking goal by Jake Guentzel.

Advancing the puck with speed and precision, Letang fed Sidney Crosby, who quickly moved the biscuit to Bryan Rust in the left circle. Rusty in turn fed Guentzel in his office in front of the net. The puck struck a Rangers blade and hopped in the air. Jake miraculously got a skate on the fluttering rubber and punted it, Bobby Walden-style, up in the air before batting it past a stunned Shesterkin with the heel of his stick.

An absolutely incredible display of wherewithal, skill and hand-eye coordination.

If only we could’ve held the lead. Alas, 65 seconds later Miller unleashed a shot/pass from the top of the left circle that struck Mike Matheson’s skate and slipped in. If I’m not mistaken, the third goal that went in off the black-and-gold defender this series.

However, the Pens continued to display their mettle. With Rust, who appropriately played with razor-edge intensity, off for cross-checking, Rodrigues broke up a Filip Chytil pass high in our zone and nudged it ahead. Fending off a stick check from Miller, E-Rod roofed an unconscious backhander with one hand on his stick to restore our lead.

Brilliant goal.

And for 15 minutes or so, one I thought would serve as our game-winner.

Puckpourri

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Pens again dominated everywhere but on the scoreboard. We held the high ground in shot attempts (70-64), shots on goal (45-30), scoring chances (37-29), high-danger chances (22-6) and faceoffs (51 percent).

Superficially at least, our special teams outperformed theirs, cashing in for two power-play goals and E-Rod’s shorty. Speaking of Rodrigues, he atoned for his costly penalty in Game 6 with a strong effort, collecting a goal and an assist and firing off a game-high six shots on goal, tying Panarin.

However, as they say, crème rises to the top. And in this pivotal Game 7, the Rangers’ crème rose a little higher. Krieder, Panarin and Zibanejad combined for three goals and five points. The Pens’ triumvirate of Jake, Sid and Evgeni Malkin (quiet with a lone shot on goal), a goal and an assist.

Shesterkin stopped 42 of 45 shots, Jarry 26 of 30.

Jarry, Crosby (an assist) and Rickard Rakell (four shots on goal) returned to the lineup.

Guentzel enjoyed an extraordinary series. He became only the third player in franchise history, behind Mario Lemieux and Sid, to tally eight goals in a playoff series. For his career, the tousle-haired winger’s racked up a staggering 34 goals and 58 points in 58 postseason games.

Overall, I thought our guys acquitted themselves well, as they had throughout the series. But as Bruce Springsteen sings in Atlantic City, “There’s just winners and losers and don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line.”

For the fifth postseason in a row, our Pens got caught on the wrong side of that line.