Happiness! Rangers Beat Penguins to lead series at 2-1

Well, yay. 

Our New York Rangers have risen from the dead to beat Sidney Crosby and company 2-1 to regain the lead in this first round playoff series.

The Rangers have many ways they can beat you – and they use them all.  And when we lose game everyone talk about our lack of powerplay offense and our inability to win faceoffs.  But when we win?  Not so much.

Keith Yandle caught the Penguins on a bad change and fed a perfect pass to Carl Hagelin who beat Fleury for the 1-0 lead. 

And in the 2^nd it was another amazing play.  Dan Girardi slams the puck deliberately wide of the net so that it bounces of the end boards and directly to Chris Kreider who buries the rebound. 

And that was all we needed.  Through two periods we limited Pittsburgh to 11 shots.  Of course they rose up in the third – scored one goal and nearly tied it.  But the Rangers held on and got the win.

We’ll take it.  And the series lead.

    

What Did We Learn?  We learned that the Rangers can still win a hockey game.

Assist “Sisters”:   Just defensemen!  Two for Dan Girardi.  One each for Staal and Yandle.

Did Special Teams Determine The Outcome Of This Game?  Happily no!  We were both 0-2 on the powerplay.  That’s fine.

Where Do We Stand?  Up 2-1on the Penguins.  2 wins from the 2^nd round and 14 wins from the cup.

Oh My - What Will Happen Next?  Wednesday night we have game 4.

Non-Sequitur of the day:  Sidney Crosby.  I dislike him.