The Empire (State) Strikes Back: Rangers Down Penguins 5-2

The magic dust wore off our Penguins last night at Madison Square Garden. Or the clock struck midnight and our goaltender turned into a pumpkin, whichever you prefer.

We had our moments during the Game 2 loss to the Rangers. Just not enough of ‘em. The same for Louis Domingue. Our Cinderella goalie stopped 35 shots to keep us in the hunt for a while, including a spectacular glove save on Mika Zibanejad eight minutes in. In the end, Louis didn’t stop enough of ‘em as New York prevailed, 5-2.

The Rangers struck early at 6:50 of the first period, once again forcing the Pens to play catch up. With Ryan Strome and black-and-gold defenders Mike Matheson and Kris Letang parked in the blue paint, effectively walling Domingue off, Andrew Copp curled into the slot and beat Louis for the game-opening goal.

Undaunted, the Pens continued to display remarkable pluck. Two minutes later Sidney Crosby picked Artemi Panarin’s pocket and steamed into the Rangers’ zone. Jacob Trouba hit Sid and the puck popped loose to a trailing Marcus Pettersson, who snapped a hard shot on goal. Jake Guentzel pounced on the rebound and slipped the rubber beneath Igor Shesterkin’s left pad to knot the score.

Domingue made another big save, this time on Filip Chytil. At the far end of the ice, Shesterkin stopped Kasperi Kapanen and Teddy Blueger. Rookie Drew O’Connor rang one off the post, narrowly missing a chance to give us the lead.

All-in-all, a solid 20 minutes for our guys.

However, John Marino was whistled for cross-checking early in the second period and things began to unravel. To borrow from an old Jim Croce song, “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape.” And you don’t hand the Rangers a power play.

With seconds remaining on the man advantage, Adam Fox unleashed a drive from center point that deflected off Strome’s stick and through Domingue’s five-hole. Two-one, bad guys.

While the Pens shuddered, the Rangers attacked. With eight minutes left in the period, the Blueshirts converted again on a near cookie-cutter play. This time it was Frank Vatrano firing from center point and Chris Kreider doing the deflection honors. Again, Domingue had little chance.

Down 3-1, we appeared to be in deep doo-doo. Then Crosby literally willed us back into the game with an amazing goal that almost defies description. After scooping up a loose puck in our end, Sid made a bee-line for the Rangers’ zone. Crossing the blue line, he split Panarin and Justin Braun, then fended off the double-team checking of Braun and Trouba before attempting a pass to linemate Bryan Rust. The puck bounced off Trouba’s skate to Rust, who fired a quick shot on goal. As if drawn by a magnet, the rebound came right to Sid and No. 87 drilled it home.

Brilliant goal. Simply brilliant.

Suitably inspired by their captain’s supreme effort, the Pens pressed furiously for the tying goal. Our best chance came 57 seconds into the final period when Shesterkin robbed Evgeni Malkin from the side of the net.

After ringing up an early 9-1 edge in third-period shots, the tide turned once again. With our top unit hemmed in, Panarin flicked a harmless backhand pass toward the slot. The puck never reached its intended target, instead hitting Matheson’s shin pad and bounding through the luckless Domingue’s exposed five hole.

Barely 100 seconds later Vatrano blew past Matheson with a burst of speed and beat Domingue high glove side from the right circle to put the game out of reach.

Coach Mike Sullivan pulled his embattled goalie in favor of an extra attacker with five minutes to play. But the only real excitement occurred with two minutes remaining when Jeff Carter flattened Shesterkin in pursuit of a Rangers defender to set off a wild scrum.

To sum up, I don’t think the Pens played all that badly, at least for 50 minutes. But on this night, the Rangers were the better team.

Puckpourri

The Rangers held an advantage in shot attempts (72-68) and hits (40-27). The Pens had the edge in shots on goal (41-40), scoring chances (39-35) and high-danger chances (a whopping 23-8). Faceoffs, too, at 53 percent.

Shesterkin was the difference, although in Domingue’s defense, it’s hard to fault him on the first four New York goals.

With a pair of power-play goals and a shorthanded tally, the Rangers are dominating the special teams battle. Our PK looks especially tentative.

I can’t say enough about Sid’s goal…maybe the best of his career. Born of equal parts skill, grit and sled-dog determination, it defines the very essence of the marvelous player he is. They should bronze the puck and put it in the Hall of Fame.

O’Connor replaced Rickard Rakell. Aside from his shot off the post, Drew was a minus-two in 6:33 of ice time.

Brian Dumoulin (lower-body injury) was a surprise scratch. Mark Friedman filled in on the third pairing while Matheson bumped to the top tandem beside Letang. Our ersatz No. 1 combo had a rough night…each finished a minus-three.

Friedman gave black-and-gold fans a little something to cheer, dumping Blueshirts bully Ryan Reaves with a hard check in the third period. “Wild Man” registered three shots on goal and finished a plus-one in his first-ever playoff game.

Once again, our secondary scoring is MIA. The Crosby line has accounted for five of our six goals thus far and 11 of our 18 points.

With the series knotted at one game apiece, it’s back to the ‘Burgh for a little home cookin.’ Game 3 is slated for Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.

Around the League

Carolina is up on Boston, 2-0. Ditto Colorado on Nashville. Toronto-Tampa Bay, Florida-Washington, Minnesota-St. Louis, Edmonton-Los Angeles and Calgary-Dallas are knotted at 1-1.