Slumping Penguins can’t slow Rangers’ power-play

Associated Press

NEW YORK

A perfect storm of potential greeted the slumping New York Rangers when the battered and beaten Pittsburgh Penguins came to town at the end of a long, emotional weekend.

Pittsburgh was missing injured stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and was down in toughness with Matt Cooke and Eric Godard serving suspensions.

Throw in the fallout of Friday night’s fight-filled blowout loss on Long Island, and the Penguins were a seemingly early target for the Rangers, who had lost six straight.

When New York fell behind by two goals in the opening 5:06, coach John Tortorella called a timeout that turned around his team’s fortunes. The Rangers scored five straight goals and beat the makeshift Penguins 5-3 on Sunday.

Behind a struggling power play that produced three goals in a game for the first time this season, the Rangers broke an 0-5-1 slide.

“Even though they made a few plays and scored early, we felt good about our game,” forward Brandon Dubinsky said. “We just kept grinding away.”

Ryan Callahan had two goals and an assist to help the Rangers win for the first time since he returned from injury on Feb. 1. New York took advantage of Pittsburgh’s NHL-leading penalty-killing unit.

The Rangers tied it before the first intermission and busted out in the second period — while recording 16 shots — on goals by Vinny Prospal, Callahan, and Artem Anisimov. That was enough to end the skid that put the team’s playoff hopes in jeopardy. The Rangers hadn’t won since beating Washington 2-1 in a shootout on Jan. 24.

New York’s rally was sparked by Tortorella’s timeout called after Nick Johnson’s second NHL goal. Deryk Engelland had given the Penguins a 1-0 edge at 2:06.

Brett Sterling brought Pittsburgh within 5-3 with a power-play goal 5:12 into the third, but the Penguins, who failed to capitalize on a double high-sticking penalty to Michael Sauer later in the period, have lost four of five following a five-game winning streak.