Evgeni Malkin gets on track, Matt Murray rolls as Penguins win again

NEW YORK — The way things are going, Matt Murray may never lose to the New York Rangers, and Henrik Lundqvist may never beat the Pittsburgh Penguins again.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist, and Murray won his sixth consecutive start since returning from a lower-body injury, leading the Penguins to a 7-2 victory over the Rangers on Wednesday night.

Murray is 8-0 in his career against the Rangers, including a 6-0 mark at Madison Square Garden. He made 28 saves, including 12 while the Penguins struggled to find their footing in the first period.

“I like coming here. A lot of history and stuff like that. Growing up, you never thought you’d get the chance to play at Madison Square Garden,” Murray said. “I just try to compete out there. It doesn’t matter what rink I’m in. I just try to compete.”

Lundqvist has dropped eight regular-season decisions in a row to the Penguins. He stopped 12 of 18 shots before being pulled in the third.

“It was probably my worst game,” Lundqvist said. “First four, breakaways, a deflection, tough plays, but I need to find a way to stop one of those and third period, I was just awful. If you’re going to beat a team like Pittsburgh, you obviously need better goaltending, so that’s on me.”

The Penguins have won seven consecutive to move past Columbus into second place in the Metropolitan Division, one point behind first-place Washington.

None of which left coach Mike Sullivan particularly pleased after the game.

“We didn’t have our legs,” Sullivan said. “I don’t think it was our best effort, especially on this road trip. We just didn’t seem to play with a lot of energy or a lot of intensity.”

Sullivan isn’t wrong. To cherry-pick a stat, the Rangers held a 52-39 advantage in even-strength shot attempts in the game. The Penguins won easily not because they dominated but because they were better in a couple of key aspects of the game.

• First and foremost, their finishing was ruthless.

For example, they scored three times in a six-minute stretch of the second period.

First, Zach Aston-Reese, a native of nearby Staten Island, finished off a backhand saucer pass from Matt Cullen. Then, Jake Guentzel scored past a Bryan Rust screen. Finally, Kris Letang stripped a puck from Pavel Buchnevich and buried a breakaway shot into the top corner of the net.

“The opportunities we got, we finished on,” Sullivan said.

• Second, Malkin showed some signs of rounding into form.

Stuck in a slump in which he produced one even-strength goal in his previous 29 games, Malkin made a slick pass to feed a wide-open Dominik Simon streaking down the right side for a goal that made it 4-1 late in the second period.

Malkin scored in the third when he barged down the slot with a defender on his back and watched as a puck slid off his stick and between Lundqvist’s pads to make it 5-1.

“It’s my fault. I’m not playing great,” Malkin said. “If I start to play better, my linemates, they help me and I’ll help them. We play so much better. I feel it’s all about me. I hope a goal will give me a little bit of help next game, and confidence is back.”

• And then, of course, there was Murray, who has a .955 save percentage in six starts since returning from injury.

“I think Matt’s game has been terrific since he came back,” Sullivan said. “He’s been so locked in and so solid. He’s been making timely saves for us every game.”

Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jonathan at jbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BombulieTrib.