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Rangers' power-play fails to produce

BY STEVE ZIPAY | steve.zipay@newsday.com

April 28, 2008

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PITTSBURGH - With an extra man yesterday, the Rangers were extra weak.

In the 2-0 loss to the Penguins that gave Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Rangers had nine shots on goal on six power plays, including only one against Marc-Andre Fleury during the final two opportunities in the third period - at 13:54, when Petr Sykora was sent off for high-sticking, and at 17:38, when Hal Gill was called for crosschecking Sean Avery.

"We got our sticks in lanes; we were blocking shots [22 overall]," Sidney Crosby said. "I don't think it was anything in particular. It doesn't happen too many times that we have to kill this many penalties ourselves."

The Penguins have allowed only two power-play goals in 22 opportunities in six playoff games, all of them victories.

The Rangers were 4-for-17 on the power play in the five-game series against the Devils but are only 1-for-9 - Martin Straka's opening goal of this series Friday - in the first two games against Pittsburgh. Not only did the Rangers slide back into their perimeter-passing game, but they couldn't control the puck for long stretches.

"They're hunting pucks down well, working hard," Rangers coach Tom Renney said of the Penguins' penalty-killers. "It's good work habits on their part."

Rangers defensemen Michal Rozsival, Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backman, manning the points for more than 5:30 each on the power play, hit the net with two shots.

Chris Drury acknowledged the rediscovered defensive stance of the Penguins, who have eight power-play goals in six postseason games and won a 5-4 track meet Friday. "I'm sure their meetings were a mirror image of ours," he said yesterday. "Both teams were paying more attention. Their winning goal was on my penalty; we just couldn't get one when we had the chances. Certainly late, we had a few [good ones], but in any game you get shut out, you have to generate more."

To be sure, the Rangers' penalty-killers turned aside four of five Penguins power plays, just as they had Friday. Center Jordan Staal scored when Drury, one of the Rangers' top penalty-killers, was in the box.

"If you give them too much, especially on the power play, they will sooner or later score," Henrik Lundqvist said. Asked if he derived any satisfaction in keeping Crosby off the scoreboard, Lundqvist responded: "No. I absolutely don't care who scores as long as we get the win. It's tough to start with two losses here. We've got to go home and get a win. You start with one win, and you never know."

"Momentum is a scary thing in the playoffs," said Drury, who played for the Sabres last season when Buffalo was up 2-0 on the Rangers and lost two at Madison Square Garden, " I think we got back to our style of play today and know what we have to do. It's good [we've] all been in this position before, where [we] had to win a game, including myself and Scotty [Gomez]."