Louie, Louie! Me Gotta Go

Story by Yinzer Crazy Contributor Luke Ranalli

I mean what can you say about last night other than wow, what a whirlwind of emotions.

I have so many thoughts about last night's game, but for the first time in many playoffs, they are happy ones. I felt like even if the Pens lost they could come back in the series, but they didn't - and snagged game one in the Garden.

Where do I start? Jake Guentzel came up big, all the lines clicked even after Rickard Rikell went down, and the amount of discipline the Pens showed was honorable. There was so much to love about last night's game, but the main focus was the goaltending on both sides of the puck.

Props need to be given to Igor Shesterkin, who played an incredible game, making blockbuster saves when the Rangers needed them most. Igor faced 83 shots last night, saving 79; only 6 shy of the record held by Joonas Korpisalo and his 85 saves back in 2020 with the Columbus Blue Jackets. There's a reason Shesterkin is the talk of the town when it comes to the Vezina trophy.

There is no doubt Igor was the reason the Rangers were able to stay in last night's game. Fortunately for the Pens, two unlikely heroes were able to change the outcome yesterday:

Obviously I'm talking about Casey DeSmith and Louis Domingue between the pipes. In an article I wrote yesterday, I talked about how this could be DeSmith's time to shine. It's his last real opportunity to make a name for himself in the NHL. He didn't start out very strong, letting a fluttering power play goal by Adam Fox through in the first, and with just three mins gone in the second, Andrew Copp was able to put the second tally on the board for New York. It brought on that sinking feeling I was dreading before the playoffs even started.

Then Guentzel brought back hope with back-to-back scores. Towards the end of the period, we saw Chris Kreider give the Rangers the lead, and then Bryan Rust notch the last goal of the period, and consequently regulation.

Both Igor and DeSmith stood on their heads for the remainder of the third period, pushing the game into what would ultimately result in me losing way too much sleep last night and neglecting my responsibilities. Just check out this shot tracking chart from ESPN -- this graphic looks like an overwhelming warzone!