Pens Lose Game 5, and Crosby, in Slugfest at the Garden

Recap by Yinzer Crazy Featured Penguins Contributor Patricia Beninato

When we all look back on the Penguins/Rangers first round series in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, we can pinpoint a major shift.

At 9:15 in the second period of Game Five, the Pens were in cruise control at Madison Square Garden. They were up 2-0, courtesy of a Jake Guentzel strike assisted by birthday boy Bryan Rust and Mike Matheson at 10:28 in the first and a laser by Kris Letang at 7:58 in the second. Although Evgeni Malkin and Jason Zucker were correctly credited with assists, for some reason NHL.com gave the goal to Teddy Blueger, who wasn’t even on the ice at the time.

Maybe that was some sort of weird sign.

A little less than two minutes later, at the aforementioned 9:15, the Rangers’ Jacob Trouba gave Sidney Crosby an almighty elbow whack to the face. Sid went back to the dressing room, not to be seen again for the rest of the game.

You could almost hear the switch being flipped.

At 15:11, Adam Fox, the only Ranger scoring with any sort of regularity in this series, got one past Louis Domingue with help from Andrew Copp and Ryan “I Also Enjoy Dirty Hits” Strome. Ninety seconds later, Alexis Lafrenière slap-shot a goal, with Kappo Kaako and the Elbow King on the assists. 68 seconds after that, the Elbow King scored his own goal to take the lead for the Rangers. Jeff Carter, who was standing nearby, looked like he wanted to punch Trouba in the face himself, and not one Penguins fan would have begrudged him.