Furious Rangers rally falls short in 6-5 loss to Penguins: takeaways
Four third-period goals wasn’t quite enough for the New York Rangers, who closed out a miserable month of January with a 6-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena.
Once down 5-1 early in the third-period, the Rangers closed to within a goal with 11 seconds to play and had one last chance at a miracle comeback with a face-off in the offensive zone and 3.6 seconds on the clock. But the Penguins won the draw to close out their sixth straight victory, albeit one that nearly slipped away in inexcusable fashion.
Despite battling back in the third period, the Rangers (22-28-6) lost their third straight game, and sixth in the past seven. They finished 3-10-1 in January, even though the month began with an exciting 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers in the outdoor Winter Classic in Miami.
Alexis Lafreniere (two goals, one assist) and Vincent Trocheck (one goal, two assists) led the way for the Rangers, who generated almost no offensive pressure in the first two periods of this game. Vladislav Gavrikov and Will Cuylle also scored, and Jonathan Quick finished with 29 saves.
Anthony Mantha scored twice for the Penguins, giving him five goals and three assists in a four-game point streak. Noel Acciari also had two goals, and Rickard Rakell and Ben Kindel had one apiece. Stuart Skinner finished with 15 saves, but stopped only five of nine shots in the wild third period.
The Penguins raced to a quick 2-0 lead before the game was barely six minutes old. They capitalized on a Scott Morrow turnover to open the scoring at 2:37. Rutger McGroarty picked off Morrow’s clearing attempt, and in one motion fired a shot toward the net that was deflected between Quick’s pad by Mantha.
The goal was Pittsburgh’s first shot of the game. Three shots and 3:28 later, the Penguins scored again.
A wide-open Acciari buried a one-timer from left wing after the Rangers again failed to clear the puck out of their defensive zone. His fifth goal of the season, and first in 11 games, made it 2-0 Penguins at 6:05 of the first period.
To their credit, the Rangers largely settled things down the rest of the period, and even out-chanced the Penguins 13-9 in the first 20 minutes. But there was very little sustained pressure, and their one Grade A chance was turned aside by Skinner, who robbed J.T. Miller point blank after a slick feed from Mika Zibanejad.
However, in the second period, the Rangers couldn’t get out of their own way at even strength, and did not record a 5v5 shot on goal until Lafreniere’s wrister with 10 seconds to go in the period. Somehow, though, despite having an unsightly 16.67 percent goal share 5v5, per Natural Stat Trick, the Rangers only trailed 3-1 at the second intermission.
Two more successful penalty kills — after one in the first period — and a power-play goal of their own kept the Rangers in this game. The Penguins did push their lead to 3-0 at 12:59, when Mantha was all alone in front to score his second of the afternoon, following a sensational save by Quick, who was pulled out of position after stoning Rakell.
That goal came three seconds after the Rangers killed off a Jonny Brodzinski high-sticking minor.
Incredibly, the Rangers were still without a shot on goal of any kind in the period, when the Penguins were caught with too many men on the ice at 18:15. Thirteen seconds later, they had their first shot of the period and first goal of the game, when Lafreniere squeezed a right-wing shot through Skinner for his third power-play goal of the season.
The Penguins appeared to put this one away quickly in the third period, scoring two goals 20 seconds apart before two minutes elapsed off the game clock. Rakell scored a power-play goal off a scramble at 1:20, and Acciari netted his second of the afternoon at 1:40 to make it 5-1.
But Trocheck scored a beauty on a short-handed breakaway at 9:12, and Gavrikov wired a shot through Matt Rempe’s screen past Skinner at 15:13 to make it interesting.
Kindel scored into an empty net at 17:26 to restore Pittsburgh’s two-goal lead, but Lafreniere netted his second of the game with 1:07 remaining. Cuylle pushed a loose puck over the goal line with 11 seconds left, but the Rangers ran out of time to compete the incredible comeback.
Key takeaways after Rangers lose 6-5 to Penguins
Another brutal start
Listen, kudos to the Rangers for not quitting on this one, and taking advantage of the sloppy Penguins in the third period after the home team appeared to think this none was in the bag. Yes, that comeback says something about these Rangers.
But so does the fact that, yet again, they didn’t start on time. For the 18th time this season, the Rangers allowed a goal in the first five minutes of a game. That’s the second-most in the NHL, not exactly a category you want to be the near the League lead.
Down 2-0 just 6:05 in, the Rangers were again chasing a game. That’s not a recipe for success, especially with Artemi Panarin again out of the lineup for “roster management.” The Rangers are now 5-23-4 when allowing the first goal, and 4-14-3 when trailing after the first period.
And you can add this, too. The Rangers didn’t start on time in the third period either. Allowing two more goals in the first 1:40 was an absolute crusher after they somehow were only down two after 40 minutes of play.
Noah Laba injury
Really, the worst news for the Rangers to come out of this latest loss is that Noah Laba sustained an upper-body injury and couldn’t finish the game. The rookie center slammed into the boards and favored his left shoulder at 7:42 of the first period. He took a twirl on the ice during the next TV timeout but then headed down the tunnel to the dressing room.
Laba was on the bench to start the second period, but called it a day after one 32-second shift early in the period. He finished with 2:34 TOI over four shifts, and was on ice for Pittsburgh’s game-opening goal.
A big part of this Rangers retool the rest of the season is to get the kids as much game experience as possible. And Laba’s a big part of that, as well a key core piece moving forward. So, any injury absence is suboptimal, to say the least, especially from a young player who’s one of the few bright spots in this dark season.
Special teams nearly save the day
Let’s face it, the Rangers were pretty terrible at even strength Saturday. They spent so much time exhausting themselves defending in their own end of the ice 5v5. Don’t let the comeback fool you, when it mattered most, the Rangers had no answers 5v5.
But they somehow stayed in this game and had chance through two periods — and even until the final buzzer — because of their special teams. The Rangers killed off four of five Penguins’ power plays — though they were burned by Cuylle’s senseless holding penalty at the 20-minute mark of the second period, when the Penguins scored early in the third.
The PK evened things out with Trocheck’s shorty, New York’s fourth this season. And their own power play gave the Rangers a chance when Lafreniere scored on their first shot of the second period.
