After a disheartening first period in Thursday’s Game 1 loss to the New York Rangers, the Penguins gained some momentum in the second two periods, keeping the Rangers off the board over the final two frames.
For that momentum to continue, the Penguins will have to find a way to have a better start in Game 2 tonight at Madison Square Garden. Penguins defenseman Ian Cole believes that they key lies in more aggressive play in the early going.
“I think that’s something where we were a little passive if you look at that shift on video,” Cole said of the opening shift of Game 1, when the Penguins gave up a goal 28 seconds into the game. “All five guys backed off and let them have a free outlet, which turned into a nice outlet pass for them and a 3-on-2 and you saw how that ended up.
“Trying to keep an aggressive mindset through the game from the first drop of the puck to the final buzzer. I think having an aggressive mindset and not give them space to plays will be beneficial for us.”
The Penguins may also have an advantage now that they’ve seen how the Rangers forwards use their speed to create advantages at even strength.
“We kind of saw what the tendencies were and were able to adjust our game based on what they’re trying to do,” Cole said. “Having a more aggressive mindset will definitely be beneficial, and I think that first game – seeing what they’re doing – definitely helps with that.”
Offensively, the Penguins best chance at scoring on Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist will be going to the front of the net to create screens and capitalize on rebounds. The Penguins did some of that in Game 1, with Chris Kunitz going as far as taking a goaltender interference penalty.
Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault made a plea to the officials for continued protection of his star goaltender after Game 1. “Anybody that’s followed the Rangers for the past 10 years with Henrik in goal knows that he plays in the blue paint,” Vigneault said to Newsday. “The league has a mandate to protect the goaltenders. He gets bumped or hit, it’s the referees’ responsibility to make sure he’s protected.”
“I think the referees have taking a stance heading into all of the playoffs, as you saw by the first call on (Kunitz) that they’re going to clamp down on anybody bumping goaltenders,” Penguins head coach Mike Johnston said.
While he agrees with the league’s stance on protecting the netminders, he doesn’t feel that the Penguins were especially hard on Lundqvist.
“A lot of the stuff that happened with Lundqvist, for me, was a loose puck in the crease and our guys are going after a loose puck,” Johnston said. “It’s sitting there, it’s available, and players have free reign to play that puck. That’s the way it is. I didn’t see, other than the (Kunitz) one, where the puck wasn’t there and we actually bumped or hindered Lundqvist from moving in the net. I didn’t think there was any of that.”
THE 4077: The Penguins will again be without defensemen Christian Ehrhoff and Derrick Pouliot, who are both day-to-day with upper-body injuries. The duo skated again in today’s morning skate after also skating on Thursday. The Penguins will skate with the same lineup that they had in Game 1, with rookie Brian Dumoulin joining Taylor Chorney on the third defensive pair.
They acquitted themselves well in their first playoff action. Chorney had two shots and was even in 12:51 of ice-time. Dumoulin added one shot and one blocked shot and was also even while playing 10:20.
SCOREBOARD WATCHING: The Washington Capitals evened their quarterfinal series with the New York Islanders on Friday night, scoring three unanswered goals to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 victory. Center Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and an assist, and Matt Niskanen, who was a minus-4 in game one, had two assists and was a plus-2.
The series will shift to Long Island for Game 3 on Sunday.
MINOR MATTERS: The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins got the final weekend of the regular season off to a bad start on Friday, losing 4-o to the Albany Devils. Matt Murray have up four goals on2 22 shots to take the loss and snap a three-game winning streak.
The Penguins loss, combined with a Hershey Bears victory, was enough for the Bears to clinch the East Division title. The Penguins will have to settle for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. They host the Norfolk Admirals tonight at 7:05 p.m.
The Wheeling Nailers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in their North Division semifinal series with the Toledo Walleye on Thursday. David Gilbert had a pair of goals and Franky Palazzese made 26 saves as the Nailers upset the first-seeded Walleye. Game 2 is tonight at 7:35 p.m. at the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio.
Photo credit: NHLI/Getty Images
