Rangers stay hot, pull past Penguins

Associated Press

pittsburgh

New York Rangers coach John Tortorella watched his team slog through the opening minutes of Friday night’s game against Pittsburgh and decided he’d seen enough.

Worried the hangover from Monday’s draining win over Philadelphia in the league’s annual outdoor Winter Classic had finally arrived, Tortorella burned his only timeout less than six minutes into the game.

And just like about every other move the newly minted All-Star coach has made this season, it worked.

The streaking Rangers collected themselves after the timeout, riding Henrik Lundqvist’s 37 saves and taking advantage of sloppy play by the reeling Penguins to roll to a 3-1 victory.

“I just wanted to let them know that we’re just not mailing this in, because that’s the look we had,” Tortorella said. “You see teams so much in our league say, ‘OK let’s pack it in tonight, we’ll get going the next game.’ I don’t want this team to do that and I think we found a way to at least gain some energy, found a way to score some goals.”

It’s what the Rangers do these days better than anyone in the league.

Brandon Dubinsky had a short-handed goal and assisted on Brad Richard’s 15th tally of the season while Derek Stepan took advantage of a gaffe by Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to notch his ninth goal as New York won its fourth consecutive game and ninth in its past 10.

The Rangers improved their position atop the Eastern Conference thanks in large part to Lundqvist, who has won six straight starts. He held the Penguins in check with a series of flashy glove saves and dug in when Pittsburgh turned the pressure up late.

“A lot of that game is the way we want to play, the way we need to play,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “It comes down to a couple plays, a couple mistakes by our team.”

None bigger than Fleury’s ill-fated decision to wander far from his net early in the third period.

Trailing by one, Fleury raced outside the left faceoff dot to play a New York clearing attempt.

Bad idea.

Fleury whiffed at a pass, giving the puck to New York’s Marian Gaborik, whose shot at the wide-open net clanged off the post. Stepan had little trouble with the rebound to give the Rangers a two-goal cushion.