After the Penguins got within five points of a playoff spot after their win over San Jose on Thursday with some help from around the league, they didn’t quite have the luck of the Irish on this St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
The Penguins fell to the Rangers, 7-4, on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena. With the Red Wings (in the No. 2 Wild Card spot) beating Buffalo in regulation and the Islanders (one point out) losing to Ottawa in overtime, Pittsburgh is now seven points shy. That just adds even more urgency to Sunday’s matchup with Detroit at PPG Paints Arena.
“It's frustrating not winning. We want to win. Obviously we knew this was a big one and we came up a little short,” Drew O’Connor said. “But we'll try to bounce back for tomorrow. We got another big game tomorrow we got to get ready for.”
John Ludvig, Bryan Rust, Lars Eller, and Valtteri Puustinen scored for Pittsburgh. Alex Nedeljkovic entered the game early in the third period to relieve Tristan Jarry after New York took a 6-3 lead. When asked for the reasoning behind that decision, Mike Sullivan said, “I just thought if it was early in the third period, it would give Ned an opportunity to get a little bit of work here going into tomorrow. That was probably the main thing that was in my mind.
“We had talked about it as a coaching staff in between periods depending on how it went. If they scored early in the period, that was on the table for us. If they didn't, then we probably would have left (Jarry) in.”
The consensus from the Penguins head coach and the players is that the game flipped on a pair of Rangers power plays in the second period following an eventful first.
After Ludvig scored the game-winner and added an assist for his first career multi-point effort on Thursday against the Sharks, the Penguins rookie defenseman got on the board for his second goal in as many games just 2:36 into play. But the Rangers responded just 31 seconds later with a tally from Kaapo Kakko … and Adam Fox tallied just 26 seconds after THAT to put New York in front.
“I think we generally competed well today. I think it was one of our best games in a while,” Eller said. “It just felt like we were going from the start. Even when we were down two, the feeling was that we're gonna come back, we're gonna get this.”
An eventful first period continued with Rust tying it up on his 20th goal of the season in just his 46th game. The Penguins winger has now hit that mark for five years in a row, and only eight players in franchise history have recorded more 20-goal campaigns than Rust. Artemi Panarin then got his first of two goals with five minutes to go in the opening frame.
The middle frame was filled with special teams, with Pittsburgh’s first power play eventful on both sides in terms of chances. After the Penguins went back to the man-advantage a few minutes later, Eller finished off a beautiful passing play to even the score at 3-3 ahead of that tough sequence.
It began with Panarin scoring his second of the game 12 seconds into a tripping call on Noel Acciari as part of a five-point night. Kris Letang was then assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the immediate aftermath. “It was emotion on the penalty and the play. That’s it,” said Letang, who had words with one of the referees.
"He obviously had an exchange with the referee, and the referee didn't like what he said. I'd like to believe, especially at this time of year, that the officials understand the players have a lot at stake. These guys are invested. It's an emotional game,” Sullivan said.
Unfortunately, Mika Zibanejad ended up capitalizing to put the Rangers up 5-3. After K’Andre Miller gave his team a 6-3 lead early in the third, the Penguins responded with another big goal from a rookie, with Valtteri Puustinen making it a two-goal game. But New York got an empty netter to seal the victory.
“I thought a lot of the game, we were pretty good 5-on-5,” Sullivan said. “We had a lot of good looks. Give their team credit. They've got a lot of skill. They're opportunistic with the chances they get. They finished on them.”
