NHL: Red Hot Penguins Ease Past Rangers

The Pittsburgh Penguins jumped out to an early lead at Madison Square Garden on Monday and never looked back, beating the New York Rangers 3–1 in their second of six meetings this season.

Max Talbot put the Penguins on top by getting to a misplayed puck that started as a shot by Pascal Dupuis which was blocked by Rangers defensemen Dan Girardi. The ricocheted shot was gloved down by Ruslan Fedotenko who ended up giving it away to Talbot in front of the goal.

The tempo remained even for much of the first period. The Rangers and Peguins both left few open spaces on the ice.

Forechecking for the Rangers was showing some promise until the likes of Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby were able to capitalize on long passes leaving the Rangers forwards out of position.

Several odd-man rushes were created by these passes yielding plenty of scoring opportunities for the Penguins. Only in the third period were the Rangers able to get back on their forechecking, but by then it was too late.

The second of the three Penguins goals came from a play that showed the talents of Sidney Crosby, who just had a hat trick against the Calgary Flames.

Crosby backhanded the puck again across the ice to defenseman Kris Letang, who just had to put some wood on the puck and it would have beaten most goaltenders in the league.

This assist from Crosby extended his point streak to 13 games.

Minutes later, the Penguins struck again taking the air out from underneath the Rangers who had just beaten the Florida Panthers and Nasvhville Predators back-to-back.

The third Penguins goal came from forward Chris Connor, who was able to shoot it high stick side past a screened Henrik Lundqvist.

Marion Gaborik responded with a goal of his own for the Rangers, that took away the shutout for Penguins goal tender Marc-Andre Fleury. Gaborik beat Fleury with a terrific wrist shot.

The Rangers missed the net on several close chances that could have easily put them back in the game. Brian Boyle was alone in front of Fleury and lifted the puck over the net into the stands. Then only minutes later, Fedotenko put a rebounded shot wide right of an almost empty net.

All night the Rangers seemed to be plagued by poor shooting. Much of their shots looked as though they were looking for perfection against the red hot Fleury.

Next up for the Rangers is a back-to-back against the New York Islanders starting on Thursday.

The red hot Penguins, who have won seven in a row, face the equally red hot Atlanta Thrashers on Thursday. The Thrashers have won five in a row.