PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - Rangers bounceback from game one, tie series at 1-1 with 5-2 win over Penguins.
New York started the scoring when Artemi Panarin found Andrew Copp for a one timer shot past Louis Domingue making it 1-0 Rangers. Pittsburgh would respond with a Jake Guentzel goal, his third of the series to tie the game at one after the first period.
New York would extend to a two goal lead in the second period with a Ryan Strome redirect goal and a Chris Kreider goal. Sidney Crosby cut it back to a one goal game when he made an incredible play getting past three defenders and getting a rebound off Bryan Rust's shot attempt that made it 3-2 Rangers after two periods,
The third period was all New York as they added two goals in the first ten minutes of the period from Panarin and Frank Vatrano to give them a 5-2 lead. Mike Matheson kicked in a pass from Panarin and then Matheson got burned by Vatrano as he skated right past him and scored past Domingue.
Louis Domingue made his first career playoff start in net. He made 35 saves on 40 shots.
"He did a heck of a job," said Sidney Crosby. "He's competing in there and giving us a chance. It would have been nice to give him some help but he was great tonight."
Igor Shesterkin picked up his first career playoff win. He made 39 saves on 41 shots on net.
The game was extremely physical and full of big hits and fights, but it was Jeff Carter that really sparked the Rangers when he ran into Shesterkin and knocked him down late in the third period.
"I think it's just hockey. I don't think there was any intent there by any stretch," said Mike Sullivan.
The Penguins were not able to convert on the power play in the game going 0-2 and allowed a power play goal to the Rangers, the second of the series.
"It's a hard fought game. I thought there were a lot of positives," said Sullivan. "5-on-5 tonight for the most part we were pretty good. We're playing a real good opponent. I think the one area where we need to improve is on the special teams on both sides. We need to improve."
Injury Report:
Mike Sullivan confirmed that Brian Dumoulin is out with a lower body injury in his press conference. He also said Zucker was a game time decision for game 2 and indicated he is close to a return.
Up Next;
Now it's all tied at one game each as the teams travel to Pittsburgh for game 3 on Saturday night at 7:00.
