Rangers beat fading Penguins as Artemi Panarin records five points
The Rangers' Artemi Panarin celebrates his goal with Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere during the first period of an NHL game against the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Credit: AP/Gene J. Puskar
PITTSBURGH — The Rangers’ previous game was a potential first-round playoff preview against Tampa Bay. The one before that was a showdown with Carolina, with whom they are battling for first place in the Metropolitan Division. The next game is against their bitterest rival, the Islanders.
Saturday’s matinee against a fading Penguins team at PPG Paints Arena didn’t have nearly the sizzle of those others, not with the Penguins having traded away winger Jake Guentzel last week and seemingly falling out of the chase for a playoff spot.
But the Rangers (44-19-4), playing their fourth game in six days, took care of business by beating the Penguins, 7-4, giving them a 2-1 record on their road trip and their third win in the last four games.
They got two goals and three assists from Artemi Panarin, whose third assist was the 500th of his career, and a goal and two assists each from Chris Kreider and K’Andre Miller.
The Rangers also got a sterling 34-save performance from 38-year-old backup goaltender Jonathan Quick, who earned his 390th career victory, moving him past Dominik Hasek into 16th place in NHL history and putting him one behind Ryan Miller for the most wins by an American-born goalie.
“He was fantastic,’’ coach Peter Laviolette said after Quick improved to 15-5-2. “I thought he was unbelievable tonight.’’
The last time the Rangers played in Pittsburgh, Quick was brilliant, making 32 saves in a 1-0 win the night before Thanksgiving. Though he allowed four goals this time, he was no less brilliant, making several big-time saves.
“They were throwing a lot at the net there and trying to create [havoc] around the net,’’ Quick said. “But we did a good job of trying to limit those chances from in tight and clearing out some rebounds. And obviously, offensively, we were capitalizing on the opportunities we created.’’
The Penguins (29-28-9) opened the scoring at 2:36 of the first period when defenseman John Ludvig fired a shot from the left point that went through traffic and got by Quick, who never saw the puck.
The Rangers tied it 31 seconds later. Alex Wennberg forced a turnover behind the Penguins’ net and Jimmy Vesey passed the puck to Kaapo Kakko, who put it past Tristan Jarry at 3:07. Adam Fox scored his 12th of the season 26 seconds after that to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. The goal tied Fox’s career high.
Bryan Rust tied it for Pittsburgh at 12:27, but Panarin’s first goal gave the Rangers the lead back before the period was over.
Pittsburgh tied it again on a power-play goal by Lars Eller at 10:10 of the second period after Fox was hobbled when he blocked a shot by Kris Letang. Fox stayed down for a few seconds after he was hit; when he did get up, he couldn’t move much, and the Penguins were able to take advantage.
But Fox stayed in the game and picked up an assist on Panarin’s power-play goal at 16:27 of the second period. That put the Rangers back in front, 4-3.
Letang was given an unsportsmanlike penalty after the goal, which gave the Rangers another power play, and they took advantage as Mika Zibanejad banged in a pass from Kreider to make it 5-3 at 17:32.
Miller’s goal — his first since Dec. 27, a span of 33 games — gave the Rangers a 6-3 lead at 4:41 of the third period and chased Jarry (six goals allowed on 23 shots) in favor of backup Alex Nedeljkovic.
Miller said of the drought: “I think when it starts to bother you, that’s when you can get a little off your game and start doing things that maybe you’re not supposed to do. So I think I was just trying to play within my game and know that it was coming at some point.’’
Kreider scored into an empty net with 18.0 seconds remaining.
Notes & quotes: Miller earned his 100th career point with an assist on Panarin’s first goal . . . Panarin’s five points give him 93. His career high is 96. The five-point game was the fifth of his career and fourth with the Rangers. Rod Gilbert (six), Ulf Nilsson (four) and Jean Ratelle (four) are the other Rangers to have at least four five-point games.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
