Penguins get important divisional win over rival Rangers

It was only the 32nd game of the schedule for the Pittsburgh Penguins. There are still 50 more to go in the regular season.

The only thing at stake were two (or possibly three) points.

And they did quite a bit to downplay any narratives of trying to avenge any kind of wrongdoing against a long-standing rival.

But the Penguins acknowledged their home contest on Tuesday against the New York Rangers — the team that ended their season in the playoffs last spring — commanded a bit more gravity than their previous 31 games.

“There’s extra motivation because it’s a divisional game,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said Monday in Cranberry. “Obviously, divisional games are big. This is a team that we’re familiar with for obvious reasons. We definitely want to come out and play hard here.”

The Penguins accomplished that as they dispatched the Rangers, 3-2, at PPG Paints Arena.

With the victory, the Penguins (19-9-4, 42 points) inched ahead of the Rangers (18-11-5, 41 points) for third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Forward Jason Zucker returned to the Penguins lineup after missing two games due to an undisclosed injury. Only six days prior, his status was labeled as “week to week.” He manned his typical roles on the second line and the second power-play unit.

While Zucker came back to the fold, fourth-line forward Ryan Poehling did not finish the contest due to an undisclosed injury. Poehling did not record a shift for the final 10:20 of regulation. There was no substantive word on his status.

Rust’s suggestion that the Penguins would play hard was valid, assuming you don’t count the first half and change of the contest.

For the first 34:24 of regulation, the Penguins offered the type of energy befitting a September afternoon preseason game full of American Hockey Leaguers instead of a rematch with the adversary that handed them a bitter defeat in the first round this past May.

“I almost feel like it was the tale of two games inside of 60 minutes,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “The first half of the game, we just weren’t at our best. I don’t think we had a whole lot of emotion. We were flat-lined a bit. We weren’t skating. We weren’t getting to pucks. We weren’t getting on top of them, putting them under pressure. It was just kind of a lackluster kind of performance for the first half of the game.

“Somewhere in the middle of the second period, we started to get some life. We started to get some juice.”

The Rangers had things flowing almost immediately and needed only 22 seconds to take the first lead of the contest.

Gaining the offensive zone at center point, Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck, an Upper St. Clair native, forced a forehand pass to the left wing. Despite Penguins defenseman Kris Letang getting a piece of the puck, Rangers forward Chris Kreider accepted the pass and worked it up the wall. From the left circle, Kreider shuffled a pass attempt towards the cage, where defenseman Marcus Pettersson appeared to inadvertently deflect the puck over goaltender Tristan Jarry’s glove on the far side. Kreider was credited with his 15th goal of the season of an assist by Trocheck.

“We got scored on there off that kind of bad bounce,” Pettersson said. “I think it went off me. They took the energy out of us and we couldn’t really get going. We’ve got to be better at the start of games like that against a rival like that.”

A pair of power-play goals in the second period supplied the Penguins with a lead.

First came forward Evgeni Malkin’s 11th of the season at the 14:24 mark. Keeping a puck in the offensive zone at the right point, Penguins forward Sidney Crosby slid a pass to Malkin above the left circle. Surveying for a shooting lane, Malkin released a heavy wrister that beat the blocker of goaltender Igor Shesterkin — who was regularly serenaded with sing-song “Eeeeee-gor” chants similar to those he heard in this venue this past May — on the far side. Penguins forward Rickard Rakell, who made a determined effort to draw an interference penalty against Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller at the 13:43 mark, supplied a stout screen on the shot. Crosby had the lone assist.

The score marked the ninth consecutive contest in which the Penguins scored a power-play goal.

Late in the period, Rust’s eighth goal put his team in front at the 19:47 mark. Corralling a puck at the left point, Penguins rookie defenseman P.O Joseph maneuvered toward the center point and snapped off a wrister towards the cage. Positioned above the blue paint, Rust redirected the puck with the shaft of his stick past Shesterkin’s blocker. Joseph and Zucker tallied assists.

Just as the goal entered the cage, Rust absorbed a cross-check from Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren and was restrained by Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen, potentially preventing a confrontation or even a penalty.

“If you couldn’t tell, I was a little bit upset in the moment,” Rust quipped. “But also, very excited in the moment because I scored. Hockey is a game of emotions. And they run high sometimes.”

Jarry’s mostly high level of play was on display most of the contest, particularly at 4:59 of the third period when he denied Kreider on a breakaway and kept the Penguins in the lead.

“His game is really sharp right now,” Sullivan said. “It has been for a while. He has a calming influence. He made some tough saves look routine. He just reads plays so well. He gets to his spots.”

A five-on-five goal by Crosby at 8:40 of the final frame proved to be the game-winner. Off a one-touch pass from the right wing of the neutral zone by Rakell, Penguins forward Jake Guentzel gained the offensive zone with all the momentum of a comet, creating a two-on-one against Rangers defenseman — and, judging by the boos any time he touched the puck, Penguins nemesis — Jacob Trouba. Drawing in Trouba, Guentzel slipped a pass to the left circle for Crosby, who attacked the cage and tucked a smooth backhander through Shesterkin’s five hole for his 18th goal. Guentzel and Rakell registered assists.

The Rangers persisted and pulled within one score only 1:23 later. Lugging a puck up ice from his own zone, Trocheck spun Joseph off of his skates with a deke at the Penguins’ blue line and generated a two-on-one rush with Kreider against Penguins defenseman Chad Ruhwedel. As Ruhwedel slid to his belly to prevent a pass, Trocheck went deep in the right circle and fed a clever pass to the slot for Kreider, who jabbed a forehand shot past Jarry’s blocker. Trocheck and forward Jonny Brodzinski had assists.

After that, Jarry and the Penguins held the Rangers at bay, rejecting their final seven shots. In total, Jarry made 26 saves on 28 shots to boost his record to 15-3-3.

In Jarry’s estimation, the turning point in Tuesday’s win was vivid.

“Those two (power-play opportunities) were huge for us,” Jarry said. “They got big goals for us. … From there on in, guys were playing hard and they were getting pucks deep. Those two (power-play opportunities) were game-changers for us.”

Notes:

• Malkin has a nine-game scoring streak.

• With Zucker back in the lineup, Penguins forward Danton Heinen was moved from the second line to the fourth line.

• The Penguins’ scratches were forwards Josh Archibald (undisclosed injury), Drew O’Connor (healthy) and defenseman Mark Friedman (healthy).

• Kapanen took his first penalty of the season, a tripping minor at 3:28 of the second period. That leaves O’Connor as well as forwards Drake Caggiula and Filip Hallander as the only three players — including goaltenders — to dress for the Penguins this season without incurring a penalty. Caggiula and Hallander are each currently assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.

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