The Penguins’ seven-game winning streak has come to an end as the Rangers beat Pittsburgh 5-0 Tuesday night in New York. The Rangers started out the first period flying, scoring three goals in the first period and never looking back. Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made 33 saves for his third shutout of the season.
Mats Zuccarello was the first to score for the Rangers on a shot off a face-off win with 11:37 left in the first. Martin St. Louis followed up by scoring with 9:01 left in the first. Kevin Klein had the final goal of the first with five minutes left giving the Rangers a 3-0 lead at the end of the first.
“We had to be a lot better prepared within the first ten minutes and I thought the second part of it was our response,” Penguins head coach Mike Johnston said, “Once we saw the level that they were coming out with and how they were playing we had to respond and I think it just took us way to long to respond”
The Penguins did get chances to score, but could not beat Lundqvist. A play was reviewed in the early second period as the puck got behind the Rangers goaltender, but the puck was cleared off the goal line at the last minute by Tanner Glass. Later in the period, the Rangers were awarded a power play when Steve Downie took a roughing minor. Derick Brassard scored a power-play goal to put his team up 4-0. The Penguins streak of successful penalty kills was ended at 39.
in the third period, Rick Nash scored a shorthanded goal giving the Rangers a 5-0 lead. This sealed the deal and gave the Rangers the win. The victory ended New York’s two game losing streak.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 35 saves in the loss. He also pointed to the Penguins poor first period start as something that the team will need to rectify.
“The starts I think … we’ve had great starts since the beginning of the season, and tonight we didn’t, and they did, and it showed and … we went down pretty quickly” he said.
Sidney Crosby’s reaction to the loss was far from subdued. “It’s always frustrating having a game like that,” he said. “Right from the start we were out played and whether we won how many in a row up into this point doesn’t matter. It’s no excuse we just weren’t good enough”
“Nothing was going our way,” said Fleury, in an appropriate summation of the night.
