Fallback Penguins Lose to Rangers, Slip into Third Place
During the 2015-16 season, the Penguins and Rangers squared off three times in the month of March. The Rangers, who’d gone to the Conference Finals the previous season and the Stanley Cup Final the year before that, had dominated the Pens for quite some time. However, the black and gold, playing coach Mike Sullivan’s newly minted speed game, turned the tables, beating the Blueshirts in all three of those meetings before knocking them out in the first round of the playoffs en route to a Stanley Cup.
If that season represented a shift in the fortunes of the two rivals, this one does, too. Indeed, last night’s 3-2 loss to the Rangers before 18,001 patrons at PPG Paints Arena seems to represent a changing of the guard. The Rangers ascending, while the Pens struggle to stay afloat.
Unlike their previous clash on Friday night, the Pens showed up fully invested and ready to make a statement. However, the visitors once more got the jump, outshooting us, 5-1, through the early going.
The Pens finally broke loose at 14:24 of the frame thanks to some great work by the fourth line.