2
0
The Penguins rolled into New York and allowed the same number of goals 24 hours after they shutout the Rangers. Marc-Andre Fleury has been the best goaltender of this series and its honestly not even close. The Rangers are now like 0-483219432 on the Power Play and Fleury hasn't allowed a goal in 120 minutes. He is also undefeated in regulation games in the playoffs. Oh, and to those who say he can't play in the playoffs, he's quietly 3rd in Save % and 5th in GAA of all playoff goalies. Sidney Crosby scored just as we predicted and the Penguins steamrolled the Rangers even though they only recorded 15 shots. This is what the puck looks like to Fleury right now.
The pace of this game started almost exactly like Game 2. The Penguins had a good pace going in the game and the Rangers iced a puck early and Dominic Moore conned Marcel Goc into doing something stupid. Not sure it was a penalty and it was a pretty solid act job by Moore, but Goc has to be smarter than that. The Penguins penalty kill easily killed the Rangers power play like normal and the Penguins picked up the pace again. The Rangers did have a little more in their step in this game and they actually got some good chances on Fleury but he was like Nah. Late in the period, James Neal dropped a pass off to Evgeni Malkin. Some jobber for the Rangers (I would use his name but I don't think anyone has ever actually heard of him) skated his face into Neal's stick and fell to the ice like he got shot and his lip was bleeding. Play continued until like 6 seconds later when the ref decided it should be a penalty. Penalty or not, you can't wait 943294329 seconds to call it. They gave Neal 4 minutes and 2:15 would carry over if the Penguins killed it. The Rangers changed something from their first power play and Rick Nash got the first bolt of energy in his life and almost tucked one behind Fleury but he got fat and missed the net. Fleury may have also got lucky with a post in there somewhere, but regardless, nothing went in and we went to the break tied at 0.
The Rangers second part of that Power play and it didn't generate much. 0 for 32 for the Rangers now. Bylsma put Crosby and Malkin together just after the penalty ended and they got a little going. The Rangers did get the puck back into the Penguins zone. Robert Bortuzzo got the puck and delivered one of the best stretch passes of all time right to Sidney Crosby's tape. It was Sid and the Queen all alone and Sid went 5 hole and Lundqvist was about 3 seconds late and the puck found the end of the net. 1-0 Pens. At some point after that, the Rangers won an offensive zone faceoff, Zucarello was robbed by Fleury and then rung one off the post as the Penguins were scrambling. The MSG crowd reacted as the puck went in the net and for some reason, the ref blew it dead to check the replay. They deemed the puck never went into the net and dropped the puck, which actually probably helped the Penguins considering they were scrambling and chasing to the puck. Shortly after, the Penguins picked up some momentum after that and with about 9 minutes left in the period, the refs remembered that you can actually call penalties against the Rangers as Kevin Klein went to the box for molesting Beau Bennett. The Penguins power play was good but they didn't get anything past Lundqvist. Shortly after the penalty ended, Jussi Jokinen got called for a week holding penalty. 0-33 and just as the penalty expired, Mats Zucarello dropped a pass to Brad Richards except it missed Richards and went right to Jussi Jokinen who was in all alone with Lundqvist. Jussi did his patented move and put it past Lundqvist to make it 2-0 with his 5th of the playoffs. Even though the Rangers were generating a lot of chances, the way Fleury and the Penguins were playing, you felt like it was a huge mountain for the Rangers.
Not a whole lot happened in the 3rd. The Penguins generated 1 shot on goal the entire period. The Rangers pulled Lundqvist with about 2:45 left but they never really got a good chance on Fleury. The Penguins were blocking shots left and right and were doing a good job in front of Fleury. Game.
1. Marc-Andre Fleury
2. Sidney Crosby
3. Jussi Jokinen
Notes:
- Fleury is the first Penguins goalie to record back to back shutouts in franchise history.
- Sidney Crosby's goal was the 41st of his playoff career and broke a 13 game goaless drought.
- Robert Bortuzzo has filled in nicely since coming into the lineup for Brooks Orpik.
- With the Orpik injury, it forced Bylsma to go to a pairing of Letang-Martin and those two have been the Penguins best defensive pair and its not close. Kris Letang is playing as good if not better than he was the year he received a Norris Candidacy.
The Penguins look to take a commanding 3-1 series lead Wednesday night at the Garden at 7:30 PM on NBCSN.
Go Pens.
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