Penguins remain perfect
Pittsburgh scores 5-3 win on Broadway
Cam Cole, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, April 30, 2008NEW YORK - That, in case you missed it, was the old college try.
The New York Rangers, taking their cue from captain Jaromir Jagr, battled like fiends for some traction in their Eastern Conference semifinal series Tuesday, with the full-throated Madison Square Garden partisans behind them.
But the high-flying Pittsburgh Penguins, capitalizing on just about every scoring chance they had on Ranger goalie Henrik Lundqvist, scored five goals on their first 15 shots on goal, and sent the Blueshirts further down their slippery slope with a 5-3 decision.
Now looking at a 3-0 series deficit against a team that is 7-0 in this spring's playoffs, the Rangers' slide isn't likely to end happily.
Jagr, who was the best player on the ice Tuesday, brought the Rangers -- and the building -- back from the dead during a second period during which he and Scott Gomez pretty much owned the puck, wiping out a 3-1 Pittsburgh lead and seeming to have all the momentum on their side.
They gave up just four shots to the Penguins, but it was one too many.
After Gomez set up Ryan Callaghan for the 3-2 goal and Jagr tied it at 13:11, Ranger hitman Ryan Hollweg -- who was on the ice in response to a big physical shift by Georges Laraque and Ryan Malone -- was fingered for hitting Petr Sykora from behind, and the Penguins made the home side pay.
They kept feeding Evgeni Malkin at the right point and the 21-year-old Russian, fresh from being named a finalist for the Hart Trophy, finally found the corner he'd been aiming for and just missing, at the far post behind Lundqvist, with two minutes left in the second to put Pittsburgh back in front.
Then Malkin -- who has scored the game-winner in two of the three games and set up the winner in the other -- won an offensive-zone faceoff in the third minute of the final stanza, and two touches later, Ryan Malone was redirecting Kris Letang's point shot between Lundqvist's wickets to restore the two-goal lead.
The Rangers peppered Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury with 15 first-period shots, but the only joy they got out of the fusillade was a follow-the-bouncing-puck goal by Martin Straka that required a lengthy review after the net first tipped forward and then came off its pegs.
Before, and after, the Penguins made the most of their chances. Marian Hossa opened scoring just 62 seconds in, on a rebound of a 3-on-2 deflection by Sidney Crosby, off a turnover Crosby had created at the Pittsburgh blue-line.
Straka missed two wide-open nets before he finally connected in his second whack at a Jaromir Jagr rebound at 14:32, but the delirium inside MadisonSquare Garden when the review declared it a goal was short-lived.
Under two minutes later, an innocent-looking forecheck by Peter Sykora sprung the puck loose to Malkin and the lanky Russian one-touched a backhand pass into the slot, where Laraque, of all people, tucked it behind Henrik Lundqvist.
If North American pro sports' most famous arena fell silent then, it was deathly still when -- with Callaghan serving a double-minor for high-sticking defenceman Hal Gill -- Malkin wired a 50-foot one-timer past a heavily-screened Lundqvist, who gave up three goals on the first nine shots and didn't look very strong all night.
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