Penguins Blow Another Late Lead, Eliminated by Rangers

Recap by Yinzer Crazy Featured Penguins Contributor Patricia Beninato

In writing, it’s short and to the point: the Penguins lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs’ first round to the Rangers by a score of 4-3 at Madison Square Garden. Their 2022 season is over.

That the game ended in overtime at the very end of what would have been an excellent Penguins penalty kill is, in a way, kind of fitting.

The Pens came into this game on a super-high note--not only were Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell back on the ice, so was Tristan Jarry, a month after breaking a bone in his right foot. Tweets and news stories and enthusiastic announcers kept reminding us that the Penguins had never lost a Game 7 on the road.

I’ve been watching sports for a long time, and whenever someone says, “oh, such-and-such has never happened,” it seems to turn into the proverbial red cape in front of the bull.

The Rangers opened up the scoring with a tremendous save by Igor Shesterkin, which bounced to Mika Zibanejed, who got it to Chris Kreider, who went top-shelf on Jarry at 7:36 in the first. Jacob Trouba, who gave Sid the elbow to the face that knocked the captain out of Game 6, got a high-sticking double-minor towards the end of the period, and Danton Heinen capitalized on it at 18:51. In what’s been a bit of a recurring thing, it took Toronto to finalize the goal, but the first period ended tied at one, which is what counted.

The second period had historically been crazy in this series, and this one was no different. Jake Guentzel made sure he was going to make it onto SportsCenter with an incredible toe-bounce/stick as bat goal over Shesterkin’s head to take the lead for the Pens at 10:18. K’Andre Miller, however, tied things up again by bouncing one off Mike Matheson’s skate past Jarry a little over a minute later. Towards the end of the period, Bryan Rust went into the box for cross-checking, and for once the Penguins were on the winning end of a short-handed goal courtesy of Evan Rodrigues, who barrelled in at 17:24 with a slick backhand to gain the advantage.

3-2 Pens, going into the third period. Going deep into the third period, enough to give Pens fans hope. With everything that had gone wrong for the Pens, that it could end with an elimination victory was just--

That frustrated collective scream you may have heard at 14:15 was sparked by Zibanejed, who snapped one over Jarry’s glove hand (Matt Murray comes back to haunt us again) for the tie, which was how regulation ended. Just like Game One, bonus hockey was on the menu.

No triple overtime, though. No heroics by Sid or Evgeni Malkin or Guentzy. Instead, in a move that may have sealed his fate as a Penguin, Brock McGinn took a holding penalty. The Penguins went into kill mode, but just as we all thought they’d get out of it, here came Artemi Panarin, who sniped the puck through traffic and past Jarry at 4:46 to end it. 

I tweeted the following after the game ended:

Remember that at the beginning of this series, no one was really giving the Penguins a chance. The Rangers are good. That the Pens took them to seven--and OT--should count for something.

Of course, the snarkers came out to play on that, but I don’t care. The banged-up, aging Pens may have gone down, but they went down fighting against a young, strong team with a goalie who’s up for both the Vezina and Hart.  At one this team had a 3-1 advantage with a journeyman third-string goalie in net. That by itself is a miracle along the lines of the loaves and fishes.. 

All the pundits cried that the Penguins needed scoring from their secondary lines. They got it. Heinen. Big Jeff. E-Rod, they all stepped up. 

Will the Penguins clean house? With new ownership in place, it could happen. About the only guarantee is that Sid will be a Penguin until he decides not to be. With four consecutive first-round playoff exits, Mike Sullivan should be feeling nervous. The fabled Crosby/Malkin/Letang troika has most likely met its end, with Tanger probably being the departee. Rumors have been heavy that Rust will get paid handsomely to go to the Red Wings, his hometown team. The “end of an era” feeling can’t be denied.

Neither can the “never say die” attitude that the 2022 Penguins brought.

Thanks, yinz.