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Penguins chase Henrik Lundqvist, demolish Rangers 7-2 at the Garden (Highlights)

By
Dominick Renna
-

The start to 2019 did not go as planned for Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers.

Dom Renna

  • Pittsburgh Penguins: 7 (21-12-6, 48 points)
  • New York Rangers: 2, (17-14-7, 41 points)
  • PIT Goals: Zach Aston-Reese (6), Jake Guentzel (17), Kris Letang (9), Dominick Simon (5), Evgeni Malkin (13), Tanner Pearson (5), Sidney Crosby (19)
  • NYR Goals: Ryan Strom (4), Pavel Buchnevich (7)
  • NHL. Final. Boxscore.
  • Madison Square Garden, New York, NY.

Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers started 2019 poorly with the newly-minted NHL All-Star finding himself pulled in the third period and taking the loss in a 7-2 final to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It was the first meeting of the season between the two rivals, but only this time the Rangers are not in win-now mode. Pittsburgh had just come off a strong month of December and was looking to carry that over in star-studded affair at the Garden.

After a period of play, both teams came out still searching for the games’ first goal with Lundqvist only facing five shots as New York outshot Pittsburgh 12-5 in the first 20 minutes.

While the Rangers dominance on the shot clock continued, Lundqvist wasn’t able to keep them in it. He allowed four goals in the in that second frame on just 10 shots due to in part of some poor defensive zone decisions and coverage.

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It all started with some puck watching from Kevin Shattenkirk allowing for an open chance for New York native Zach Aston-Reese who beat Lundqvist for the first goal in this one.

A little under four minutes later Jake Guentzel fired a shot on the screened Lundqvist but the puck would be deflected in front by Marc Staal and into the net.

The poor play in the Rangers end would only continue as a 1:09 later Kris Letang stripped Pavel Buchnevich and break in on Lundqvist who had no chance on the play.

The Rangers would answer back though as Ryan Strome would deflect a Brady Skjei shot past Matt Murray to make this interesting again. But that would be the only interesting moment in the second half of this game as Pittsburgh scored two unanswered goals, chased Lundqvist and fell 7-2.

While Lundqvist gets the blame, and he does deserve most of it, New York never really gave him a chance in this one allowing high-quality scoring chance after high-quality scoring chance. You could argue that head coach David Quinn waited too long to pull the 36-year-old after waiting until the Penguins sixth goal to remove his all-star netminder.

New York will look to put this one behind him, as they head to Colorado to face the Avalanche Friday night.

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Dominick Renna
Dominick is a graduate of Canisius College. He has covered the Rangers for the last seven seasons and the Yankees for the last four.

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