PITTSBURGH — The Rangers had the Penguins right where they wanted them halfway through their first meeting since their thrilling seven-game series in the first round of the playoffs last season.
The Rangers were leading by a goal, had been controlling the pace and a good portion of the possession, while Pittsburgh was struggling to generate any sort of offense. But shift after shift and post after post after post, the Blueshirts couldn’t translate all that they were doing onto the scoreboard.
It was a couple of costly penalties, however, that changed the trajectory of the game. And with that, the Rangers’ seven-game win streak was snapped in a 3-2 loss to the Penguins on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena, where the fans in attendance relished watching their team beat the club that had ended their 2021-22 season in crushing fashion.
“There’s that one stretch in the second, which comes back to bite us, right?” said Chris Kreider, who scored both of the Rangers’ goals in the loss, which relinquished the club’s hold on third place in the Metropolitan Division to Pittsburgh. “That’s a good team over there. They don’t need any more help with their transition game and we gave them a little help there and kind of shot ourselves in the foot. Obviously, lost the special teams battle.”
As the Rangers have often pointed out this season, opponents are going to make their push at one point or another. The Penguins finally made theirs toward the end of the second period. Defenseman K’Andre Miller was called for interference to put the Penguins on the power play, during which the fans clad in yellow and black intensified their ‘IGGGORRR!’ taunts that were reminiscent of how they made it their ultimate goal to get in star goalie Igor Shesterkin’s head in the postseason.
Like clockwork, Evgeni Malkin sniped one past Shesterkin to tie the game and extend the star forward’s point streak to nine games at 14:24.
The home fans took that as a sign to relentlessly continue mocking Shesterkin, who still managed to stonewall Jake Guentzel all alone in front shortly after the tying goal on his way to 21 saves on the night. When Sammy Blais was later pinned against the Pittsburgh bench by Brock McGinn, the fourth-liner retaliated with a punch right in front of the ref that put the Penguins back on the power play at the tail end of the period.
Like clockwork, again, Bryan Rust deflected a shot from Pierre-Olivier Joseph past Shesterkin to give the Penguins the 2-1 lead.
It was a foolish and ill-tempered penalty for Blais to take. As a team, the Rangers may have blown it with their inability to bury the puck, but the Blais penalty tilted the ice in the Penguins’ favor.
“A little undisciplined,” said Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant, who benched Blais for the entire third period.
Gallant scratched a healthy Blais last week against the Maple Leafs for the first time since he came to New York as the feature return in the July 2021 trade that sent Pavel Buchnevich to St. Louis. The move was made to get Vitali Kravtsov back in the lineup, but Blais was promptly reinserted into the lineup the next game and Julien Gauthier was scratched. Gauthier’s play has certainly dropped off from earlier in the season, but he consistently draws penalties. Perhaps another switch of the two could be on the horizon.
The game was there for the taking, but the Rangers — hindered by stupid mistakes — didn’t quite reach out and take it.
