GAME THREAD: NHL: PITTSBURGH (7-8) at NY RANGERS (7-8)

By Larry Fleisher
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer


NEW YORK (Ticker) -- A dominant first period set the tone foranother home win for the New York Rangers.


Scott Gomez and defenseman Michal Rozsival scored in the openingperiod as the Rangers extended their home winning streak tofive games with a 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins onThursday night at Madison Square Garden.


Sean Avery also scored a power-play goal for New York, whichwent 2-for-7 with the man advantage and netted its highestamount of tallies since opening the season with five againstFlorida. Rookie Brandon Dubinsky capped the scoring for theRangers with his first career goal early in the third.

"Juggernaut," Rangers coach Tom Renney said, describing histeam's offensive outburst. "That's what we were saying on thebench. It was a huge night for us."


"It felt pretty good," Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvistadded. "It felt weird. It was great to see our power play stepup today and score some big goals. It was a big game."

The Rangers improved to 8-2-0 at home and won for the fifth timein six games overall to go above .500 (8-7-1) for the secondtime in three days. They did so with a second straight 22-shotfirst period on home ice.


On Monday, New York had 22 of its season-high 45 shots on goalin the first but only scored once. In this one, it doubled thattotal as Gomez and Rozsival tallied nearly 10 minutes apart.

"That's the style we want," Gomez said. "I think we played goodenough, we stuck with it and I think Tom and the coaches havedone a great job of getting us prepared, and it's showing. Thefirst period, especially at home, we've got to take care of ourhome ice. Those starts are important."


The Rangers came into the game with a league-low 27 goals, andthe opening 20 minutes marked just the fifth time this seasonthey scored at least two goals in a period. They had four inthe home opener against Florida on October 4, three first-periodpower-play tallies against Washington on October 12, three inthe third at Atlanta on October 18 and two third-period scoresvs. Tampa Bay on October 29.


"They definitely put some pressure on us and I don't think wedid a good job with our transition game," Penguins captainSidney Crosby said. "We weren't getting pucks behind them, andthey have a great offense. They did take it to us. I don'tknow about (22 shots), but they took it to us there."

Lundqvist made his 16th straight start and made 13 of his 26saves in the third period.


Defenseman Sergei Gonchar scored the first goal for Pittsburghand also set up Mark Recchi's power-play tally. Crosby recordedan assist, extending his points streak to a career-high 15games.


The Penguins almost matched their worst offensive period of theseason as they had six shots - one shy of their season low - inthe first. They did not get their 10th shot until nearly eightminutes into the second and had just 14 through 40 minutes.

New York, which had generated one goal or less in its previous15 periods, struck when it caught goaltender Marc-Andre Fleuryout of position.


Fleury had committed to playing Avery's shot, but the leftwing's wrister went wide of the net and caromed off the endboards to Gomez. Fleury had ample time to position himself butcould not get to Gomez's slap shot from just below the rightfaceoff circle with 12:25 remaining in the first.


"Early on in the season, that bounces off four guys, maybe hitsthe post," said Gomez, who has two goals in his last five games."But the breaks are coming now."


Pittsburgh evened it nearly four minutes later as Gonchar atonedfor getting beaten by Gomez. After the Rangers had troubleclearing their own end, Gonchar took a pass from Crosby and beatLundqvist to the stick side with a slap shot through trafficfrom the right point.


Like they did on Monday, the Rangers used a late goal to takethe lead as they capitalized on a double-minor to Gary Robertsand scored a power-play goal with 2:34 remaining.


Captain Jaromir Jagr started the play in the right corner with afeed to Gomez in the slot. Gomez then whipped a centering passto Rozsival, who had plenty of time to score his fourth goal ofthe season.


Avery made it 3-1 just six seconds into New York's fourth powerplay, when he beat Fleury with a slap shot from inside the rightcircle. It was the first goal of the campaign for Avery, whoreturned Saturday from a shoulder injury and


"He's a good player," said Renney of Avery, who also drew thedouble-minor on Roberts. "He feels that he can contribute in anumber of different ways, and that's really important that hefeels that way."


"I'm guess I'm kind of used to the unnerving part," Avery said."So getting that first one out the way, I think was better. I'vebeen kind of a little frustrated the first couple of games, sothat's nice to be able to get it out of the way."


The Rangers reached four goals for the just the second time allseason when Dubinsky beat Fleury to the stick side at 2:48 ofthe third following a nice pass by fellow rookie Nigel Dawes. Itwas the first career assist for Dawes.


"I was coming off the bench," Dubinsky said. "I just tried tojoin the rush there and I definitely let Nigel know that I wasthere. He made a tremendous pass and I just drove to the netand got a shot off, and it went in. It was nice."

The three-goal lead stood for just under two minutes as Recchiscored on the power play at 4:22. But Lundqvist turned aside apoint shot by Gonchar with just under 10 minutes remaining andmade a nice glove stop on Crosby during a man advantage withjust under six minutes to go.


"It's not good enough," Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien saidafter his team lost for the fourth time in five games. "Tonight,it took us a long time to get into the game. They were skatinga lot more than we were and they were winning battles. I likedthe effort in the third, but it was a bit late."

 

NHL: PITTSBURGH at NY RANGERS

<div class="pre">------------------------------------
Pittsburgh 1 0 1 --2
Ny Rangers 2 1 1 --4
------------------------------------

FIRST PERIOD -- Scoring: 1, Ny Rangers, Scott Gomez 4 (Sean Avery, Dan
Girardi), 7:35. 2, Pittsburgh, Sergei Gonchar 3 (Sidney Crosby, Evgeni
Malkin), 11:31. 3, Ny Rangers, Michal Rozsival 4 (power play) (Scott
Gomez, Jaromir Jagr), 17:26. Penalties: M Hossa, Nyr (tripping),
7:48; C Armstrong, Pit (tripping), 13:36; S Avery, Nyr (interference),
13:52; G Roberts, Pit (double minor roughing, high sticking), 16:32.

SECOND PERIOD -- Scoring: 4, Ny Rangers, Sean Avery 1 (power play) (Dan
Girardi, Paul Mara), 9:40. Penalties: S Avery, Nyr (roughing), 2:25;
M Talbot, Pit (slashing), 9:33; P Mara, Nyr (roughing), 10:54; G
Roberts, Pit (interference), 13:15; R Malone, Pit (interference),
15:28; S Gonchar, Pit (delay of game), 16:41.

THIRD PERIOD -- Scoring: 5, Ny Rangers, Brandon Dubinsky 1 (Nigel
Dawes), 2:48. 6, Pittsburgh, Mark Recchi 2 (power play) (Gary Roberts,
Sergei Gonchar), 4:22. Penalties: B Dubinsky, Nyr (tripping), 3:25; P
Mara, Nyr (holding), 13:49.

Shots on goal:
---------------------------------------
Pittsburgh 6 8 14 --28
Ny Rangers 22 10 7 --39
---------------------------------------

Power-play Conversions: Pittsburgh - 1 of 6, Ny Rangers - 2 of 7.
Goalies : Pittsburgh, Marc-Andre Fleury (39 shots, 35 saves; record:
4-6-0). Ny Rangers, Henrik Lundqvist (28 shots, 26 saves; record:
8-7-1). A: 18,200. Referees: Chris Rooney, Mike Leggo. Linesmen:
Anthony Sericolo, Brad Kovachik.</div>

 

NHL: PITTSBURGH at NY RANGERS

<div class="pre">-----------------------------------------
PITTSBURGH 1 0 1 --2
NY RANGERS 2 1 1 --4
-----------------------------------------

FIRST PERIOD -- Scoring: 1, Ny Rangers, Scott Gomez 4 (Sean Avery, Dan
Girardi), 7:35. 2, Pittsburgh, Sergei Gonchar 3 (Sidney Crosby, Evgeni
Malkin), 11:31. 3, Ny Rangers, Michal Rozsival 4 (power play) (Scott
Gomez, Jaromir Jagr), 17:26. Penalties: M Hossa, Nyr (tripping),
7:48; C Armstrong, Pit (tripping), 13:36; S Avery, Nyr (interference),
13:52; G Roberts, Pit (double minor roughing, high sticking), 16:32.

SECOND PERIOD -- Scoring: 4, Ny Rangers, Sean Avery 1 (power play) (Dan
Girardi, Paul Mara), 9:40. Penalties: S Avery, Nyr (roughing), 2:25;
M Talbot, Pit (slashing), 9:33; P Mara, Nyr (roughing), 10:54; G
Roberts, Pit (interference), 13:15; R Malone, Pit (interference),
15:28; S Gonchar, Pit (delay of game), 16:41.

THIRD PERIOD -- Scoring: 5, Ny Rangers, Brandon Dubinsky 1 (Nigel
Dawes), 2:48. 6, Pittsburgh, Mark Recchi 2 (power play) (Gary Roberts,
Sergei Gonchar), 4:22. Penalties: B Dubinsky, Nyr (tripping), 3:25; P
Mara, Nyr (holding), 13:49.

Shots on goal:
----------------------------------------
PITTSBURGH 6 8 14 --28
NY RANGERS 22 10 7 --39
----------------------------------------

Power-play Conversions: PIT - 1 of 6, NYR - 2 of 7. Goalies :
Pittsburgh, Marc-Andre Fleury (39 shots, 35 saves; record: 4-6-0). Ny
Rangers, Henrik Lundqvist (28 shots, 26 saves; record: 8-7-1). A:
18,200. Referees: Chris Rooney, Mike Leggo. Linesmen: Anthony
Sericolo, Brad Kovachik.

INDIVIDUAL PLAYER STATISTICS

PITTSBURGH NY RANGERS
G A +/- Shots G A +/- Shots
G Roberts 0 1 even 1 B Shanahan 0 0 +1 8
J Staal 0 0 -1 0 B Betts 0 0 even 0
R Malone 0 0 even 1 S Avery 1 1 +1 5
E Christensen 0 0 even 3 B Dubinsky 1 0 +1 2
P Sykora 0 0 -1 4 M Staal 0 0 +1 3
A Hall 0 0 even 1 S Gomez 1 1 +1 4
C Armstrong 0 0 -1 1 C Drury 0 0 -1 5
M Talbot 0 0 even 0 P Prucha 0 0 even 1
G Laraque 0 0 even 0 P Mara 0 1 -1 0
M Eaton 0 0 even 0 C Orr 0 0 even 1
A Nasreddine 0 0 -1 1 M Rozsival 1 0 +1 2
R Scuderi 0 0 even 0 J Strudwick 0 0 -1 0
B Orpik 0 0 even 1 R Hollweg 0 0 even 1
D Sydor 0 0 -1 2 D Girardi 0 2 +1 3
S Gonchar 1 1 even 2 F Tyutin 0 0 +1 0
E Malkin 0 1 even 1 J Jagr 0 1 even 3
M Recchi 1 0 even 2 M Hossa 0 0 even 1
S Crosby 0 1 even 8 N Dawes 0 1 even 0
J Ruutu HEALTHY M Malik BACK SPASMS
R Whitney GROIN
T Kennedy HEALTHY</div>

 

NHL: PITTSBURGH at NY RANGERS

<div class="pre">NHL PITTSBURGH AT NY RANGERS
NOTE: RESENDING BOX TO CORRECT PENALTIES ON DUBINSKY.</div>