The New York Rangers notch improbable overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins
The New York Rangers capped off an unlikely comeback by scoring in overtime to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins by a score of 3-2 on Monday 15 November.
How it happened
After a scoreless first period the Rangers took the lead midway through the second when former Penguin Erik Christensen scored his third of the season.
The Rangers held onto that lead until there was less than three minutes to go in the game. Chris Kunitz tied the game at 1-1 with his fifth of the season before Matt Cooke scored his fourth of the year
to put the Penguins into the lead with less than two minutes to go.
After the Penguins second goal, Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist slammed his stick on the ice in frustration and was whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct. Even with a man in the box, the Rangers managed
to enter the Penguins zone shorthanded. Brandon Dubinsky gave a short pass to Marc Staal who got off a rather innocuous looking shot which somehow sneaked past Marc-Andre Fleury in the Penguins goal to send the game to overtime.
It was Dubinsky who was involved again in the Rangers overtime winner after Callahan had taken the puck away from a Penguins defenceman who ended up tripping and creating a 2-on-1 for the Rangers. Callahan
gave the puck to Dubinsky who dragged the puck past a sprawling defender before playing it back to Callahan to tip the puck in.
What they're saying
"I'm still angry – even though we scored," Lundqvist told reporters referring to the incidents leading up to the Rangers tying goal. "But it's hockey. Things happened so fast, everything changed. I've
got to stay cooler, obviously, but it felt like they got another chance after chance to get back in the game. I felt like it wasn't fair, but the game is over and you just have to deal with it."
Lundqvist did a great job of keeping his team in the lead for so long as the Penguins outshot the Rangers 39-25, which earned Lundqvist the game's second star as well as some praise from his coach John
Tortorella who said, "Hank (Lundqvist) made some huge saves, which is what you have to do against a team like that."
The Rangers have now won three in a row, and two out of those three have been won in overtime. They now get set to host the Boston Bruins on Wednesday 17 November.
The Penguins have struggled at their new arena, The Consol Energy Center, as they have won only three of the nine games they've played there. They get set to host one of the Western Conference's top teams,
the Vancouver Canucks, on Wednesday night.
Tags: