The New York Rangers had goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to thank for a 3-1 win over Pittsburgh after they were completely outplayed by the Penguins for most of the game at the Consol Energy Center on Friday.
The Penguins outshot the Rangers 38-21, but could only generate one goal from Ben Lovejoy on a two-on-one rush five minutes into the game.
Following the Pittsburgh goal, Rangers coach John Tortorella called a timeout to inspire a team who had not yet registered a shot on goal.
Photo: AFP
“It looked early on like we were a team that was saying: ‘Uh oh, we’re tired, we’ve won a lot of games here lately, this may be just our bad night,’” Tortorella told reporters. “We played in spurts after that, but Lundqvist was unbelievable.”
Although the Penguins continued to dictate play, the Rangers tied the score on a rebound goal by Brad Richards late in the first period.
Brandon Dubinsky scored a shorthanded goal early in the second on a feed from Ryan Callahan, who made a beautiful move around a sprawled Penguins defender.
Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury misplayed a loose puck early in the third period which allowed Derek Stepan to further extend the Rangers lead with Lundqvist protecting it through to victory.
“A lot of that game is the way we need to play, but it comes down to a couple of mistakes by our team,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “They come out of the [first] period 1-1 even though we dictated the first 12-14 minutes.”
The Penguins believed they narrowed the Rangers lead to one in the third period, but a goal was disallowed because Chris Kunitz collided with Lundqvist prior to the puck going in.
Pittsburgh had more bad news when center Jordan Staal left the game in the third period with a left knee injury sustained in a collision with Mike Rupp, who was assessed a kneeing penalty.
“I’m turning, got my legs out, I don’t move my knee, but I understand the call,” Rupp said. “I’m 6-5, he’s 6-4, we’ve got long legs and sometimes those things happen. I hope he’s all right.”
DEVILS 5, PANTHERS 2
In Newark, New Jersey, Ilya Kovalchuk had two third-period goals to lead New Jersey over Florida.
Kovalchuk broke a 2-2 tie at 11 minutes, 40 seconds, when he made a nice rush up the ice and took a return pass from Patrik Elias, who was playing in his 1,000th game.
Kovalchuk added an empty-net goal in the closing minute, his 14th goal of the season.
The Devils got a first-period goal from rookie Adam Henrique and a second-period goal from Elias.
HURRICANES 4, SABRES 2
In Raleigh, Noreth Carolina, Eric Staal had a goal and two assists to lead Carolina past Buffalo.
Chad LaRose scored the go-ahead goal with 11 minutes, 50 seconds left, while Justin Faulk also scored and Brandon Sutter added an empty-net goal for the Hurricanes.
Jason Pominville was credited with a bizarre goal and added an assist, while Thomas Vanek also scored for Buffalo. The Sabres have lost nine of 12.
AVALANCHE 4, BLACKHAWKS 0
In Chicago, Semyon Varlamov made 27 saves to earn his second shutout, while T.J. Galiardi had a goal and an assist to lead Colorado past Chicago for their fourth straight win.
David Jones, David Van Der Gulik and Chuck Kobasew also scored for the Avalanche, who have won nine of 10. Varlamov made a few sharp saves from in close, but was not consistently tested by the Blackhawks in his sixth career shutout.
Chicago lost their third straight to match a season high and have dropped four of five following a 9-1-1 run.
In other action, it was:
‧ Ducks 4, Islanders 2
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier