Unhandled Exceptions

First Period:

Pen’s came out flying, but the Rangers weathered two power plays and struck on their first power play of the night. Initially it looked like a redirect from Dubinsky, but turns out that Straka hit Gonchar’s skate.

1-0 Rangers

Second Period:

This started out BAD. A questionable high stick goal and an odd man rush goal, and the Rangers are up 3-0. However, Ruutu gets that first goal, and Dupuis answers 14 seconds later. That brought the crowd back, and the third period should be interesting.

3-2 Rangers

Third Period:

Absolutely INSANE! Hossa somehow finds the five hole on Lundquist, and all of a sudden we have a tie game. 20 seconds later, Malkin and Sykora do what Malkin and Sykora do best, and the Pens have their first lead of the game with 15:00 left to play. The Rangers knot it up on a rocket from Gomez (Jagr should have been plowed into the boards before feeding it to him, but that’s another story) with about 7:30 left. A later Penguins Power play leads to a Malkin goal. Ok, so it was Crosby shooting and hitting Malkin’s shinguard and deflecting in. But we’ll take it. 5-4 with 1:54 left to play. The Rangers pulled Lundquist and Jagr hit the post with 20 seconds to play, but the Pens hold on.

It’s absolutely amazing that they were able to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win. While it shouldn’t affect a veteran team like the Rangers too much, there’s got to be a little self doubt heading in to Game 2. The Penguins need to win at home, as they’ll get no help at MSG on Tuesday.

5-4 Penguins

Pens lease series 1-0