Pens Beat Rangers 7-4 in Wild Affair

Story by Penguins Contributor Patricia Beninato

Another night, another dramatic Stanley Cup Playoff PengWIN.

In front of a frenetic PPG Paints Arena crowd, the Penguins took a decisive Game Three victory over the Rangers, 7-4, in a game that at first looked like it was going to be a Pens blowout, then a Rangers comeback, then … well, let’s get to it, shall we?

The Pens struck early in the first period, but it didn’t look that way initially--Brock McGinn slipped one past Igor Shesterkin’s glove at 1:51, but the net got knocked out. Did the puck cross the line before that? The first ruling was “nope.” The refs conferred. Still nope. It went to Toronto. Third time’s the charm! Kaapo Kakko came back with his own over-the-glove shot on Louis Domingue at 5:08 with help from Alexis Lafrenière and Filip Chytil, but after that, the scoring was all Pens. Big Jeff Carter got a nifty deflection power play goal at 8:18 that I erroneously credited to Evan Rodrigues during the live tweet (he got an assist, as did Mike Matheson, who was sneakily excellent in this game). It didn’t matter because E-Rod got a goal of his own a little over two minutes later, again assisted by Matheson and Mr. Spicy Pork and Broccoli (way to help yourself out, Louis). E-Rod enjoyed that goal so much that he scored another one at 15:15, aided by a deft Brian Boyle takeaway.

It looked like the Penguins’ rout was on, particularly after Shesterkin, who was serenaded with IIIGOOR chants throughout the first, was pulled in favor of Alexandar Georgiev at the beginning of the second period. However, we all know that good teams regroup. The Rangers are a good team, and regroup they did, dominating the period. Frank Vatrano, whose last name I tweeted must be Italian for “penguin killer,” scored from the right circle at 6:51. Artemi Panarin did the same from the left circle a little over a minute later. Worst of all, Andrew Copp got a short-hander (STOP WITH THE %$*&%@# SHORT-HANDERS) not helped by Kris Letang, who created a situation almost identical to the McGinn goal, except Rangers, to tie things up. 

You could almost see the steam shooting out of Mike Sullivan’s ears as the second period ended. Fortunately, the Penguins seem to respond to a good Sully screamfest, which showed when the third period began. Their penalty kill knocked off three consecutive Rangers power plays, then Danton Heinen barrelled in on Georgiev’s short side and put the Penguins ahead for good at 11:02 all by himself. The Rangers pulled Georgiev, which was their way of waving the white flag. Happily, the Penguins completely ignored that, with both Jake Guentzel and Carter scoring empty-netters at 17:46 and 18:53 respectively to seal the deal.

We’ve all been complaining about the lack of secondary scoring. Except for Guentzy’s goal, all the scoring was done by lines other than Crosby/Guentzel/Rust, although Sid did get two assists to raise him even higher in the playoff scoring hierarchy. Domingue was … competent. Like everyone, I enjoy his backstory and how he’s stepped up, but I’m not ready to proclaim him God of the First Round based on two games. I will, however, proclaim that after the debacle of Game Two, something is buzzing around this Penguins team that hasn’t been around in the past few playoff years.

Hope.