Following All-Star selection, Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist pulled after allowing six goals vs. Penguins
Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist looks on after surrendering the first Penguins goal of the second period at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Henrik Lundqvist was named as the Rangers’ representative at the NHL All-Star Game just before Wednesday night’s game against the Penguins at the Garden.
After a scoreless first period, the Penguins showed Lundqvist what happens when you face a veritable All-Star team when you’re not at your sharpest.
Pittsburgh scored three goals in a span of 5:51 of the second period and six goals on just 18 shots overall against Lundqvist en route to a 7-2 victory. It was the Penguins’ seventh win in a row and ninth in their last 10 games.
Lundqvist, who will be making his fifth All-Star appearance on Jan. 26 in San Jose, was pulled 4:40 into the third period after the Penguins took a 6-2 lead.
Lundqvist blamed himself for the loss.
"Overall, I thought we played a pretty good game,” he said. “The goaltending was not very good. Probably my worst game . . . To beat a team like Pittsburgh, obviously, you need better goaltending. It’s on me.”
Coach David Quinn put the kibosh on that idea and put the blame on his shoulders for playing Lundqvist after two tough wins in Nashville and St. Louis.
“No, it’s not,” the first-year NHL head coach said. “Because it’s all on me. He never should have played. Huge mistake on my part putting him in that position. Two intense games in Nashville and St. Louis where he had to make a lot of saves, a lot of big ones, and he shouldn’t have played. It certainly is way more on me than it is on him to put him in that position. Lesson learned.”
Zach Aston-Reese, Jake Guentzel and Kris Letang all beat Lundqvist in the second-period span to give the Penguins a 3-0 lead.
Aston-Reese, a Staten Island native playing in his first NHL game at the Garden, made it 1-0 with 13:31 left in the period.
Guentzel got credit for Pittsburgh’s second goal when his shot deflected off Rangers defenseman Marc Staal’s stick and past Lundqvist. It was a lowlight of Staal’s 800th NHL game.
(Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was interviewed on NBCSN after the Penguins took a 2-0 lead. He said he thought his team was “going through the motions” and wasn’t happy with the way they were playing. They had just gone up 2-0!)
Letang’s goal with 7:40 left in the second period came after a giveaway by Pavel Buchnevich. Letang whistled the puck high over Lundqvist’s glove to give the Penguins a 3-0 lead. Quinn turned away from the ice and shook his head in disgust.
Ryan Strome answered 26 seconds later when he sent his fourth of the season past Matt Murray. The Garden had hope, until Dominik Simon made it 4-1 with 4:15 left in the period.
“I think we played pretty well,” Quinn said. “As crazy as that sounds.”
Lundqvist allowed a fifth goal 1:03 into the third period. Evgeni Malkin slid one in through Lundqvist’s legs from in front and then continued into the goal himself to bowl over the shell-shocked goaltender.
Buchnevich made it 5-2 just 19 seconds later. But the onslaught continued when Tanner Pearson scored on the power play to make it 6-2 and end Lundqvist’s night in favor of Alexandar Georgiev, who stopped six of the seven shots he faced.
“I didn’t take [Lundqvist] out early enough,” Quinn said. “Bad night for me in that area.”
Sidney Crosby (oh, yeah, him) scored the final goal with just over six minutes left.
The Rangers came out faster than the Penguins, outshooting Pittsburgh 12-5 in the first period. But Murray was able to stop the Rangers’ best chances and the Penguins stepped up their intensity in the second.
The Rangers, who had earned at least one point in their last seven home games, go back on the road Friday to begin a three-game trip at Colorado, Arizona and Las Vegas before a home-and-home with the Islanders beginning with a Jan. 10 meeting at MSG.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
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