The Rangers had come off of consecutive victories against Washington and Philadelphia, and saw tonight's tilt against the Penguins as a measuring stick relative to Eastern Conference supremacy. The Penguins, as is the norm these days found out late that neither Kris Letang nor Zybnek Michalek would be available to them. This is essentially a # 1 defensive pairing out, to be replaced by two AHL defensemen, one of whom, Robert Bortuzzo was playing in only his 2nd NHL game. In addition, they did not even get to the Garden until the pregame skate. The Penguins cannot seem to get a break on the injury front these days. At any rate, the Pens opened the scoring at 17:56 of the first period when James Neal scored his 14th goal of the season on a power play, assisted by Crosby and Martin, the 8th assist for each of them. That is how the first period ended, with the Pens leading 1-0. At the 8:01 mark the Rangers' Ryan Callahan scored a power play goal to tie the game, and start a 10 minute stretch where the Rangers scored 4 goals including 2 power goals to take a 4-1 lead, the fourth, a power play goal by Marion Gaborik at 18:26 of period 2. These two power play goals sandwiched goals by John Mitchell and Brad Richards. Despite those lapses, Evgeni Malkin gave the Penguins hope when scored his 9th goal with 6 seconds left in the period to make the score 4-2. He was assisted by James Neal, his 11th and Steve Sullivan, his 8th. You just got that feeling that the Penguins had that magic tonight, and that they would take this game in the third. When Pascal Dupuis scored his 7th goal of the year at 3:39 of period three, that feeling was amplified. This goal was assisted by Crosby (9), for his second assist of the night and Deryk Engelland (7). Alas, it was not meant to be. Dan O'Hallaran and crew nailed the Penguins in the third penalty, forcing them to kill two extended 5 on 3's, and a soft boarding call by Kunitz very late in the game, sapping the Penguins of much offensive time. In fact, they only mustered 3 shots that period. In the middle of all of this, the Pens had ANOTHER goal disallowed, this one by Matt Cooke. I thought the officiating tonight was questionable, but the Pens did not lose a result of this. They lost due to a lack of discipline and a loss of focus in the second period in particular, and could not battle back far enough. Some positive notes to take from this include the fact that Paul Martin again played a solid game, and is showing signs of life. Crosby had another 2 point night, but was held to only one shot on goal, prompting Stan Fischler of the MSG network to ask Sid he had hit a wall. Crosby answered, u, no. 11 points in 5 games, and that is a question? Also, Deryk Engelland played a very solid game again, strong in his zone, big minutes on the PK and added a little offense to boot. Engo has become a very versatile, steady defenseman. Finally, Super Duper scored again, giving him 20 points in 25 games this year. Add his PK time and the fact that Duper is a cap friendly 1.5M per year, and he is the best bargain in hockey. Next up, the Craps and their new coach Dale Hunter. My Cup of Hatred Runneth Over Already!
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