Penguins Relapse In Third Period Collapsing Loss To Rangers

Maybe another long winning streak for the Pittsburgh Penguins is on the immediate horizon?

After all, that's what happened the last time the Pens suffered a third period collapse, back on November 10 against the Boston Bruins when they and goaltender Brent Johnson allowed the Bruins to overcome a 4-2 deficit with 5 third-period goals in a 7-4 defeat.

Johnson was back at it again last night, holding a 1-0 lead over the blueshirts when he was front and center in another third-period collapse that morphed into a 4-1 win for New York and the second straight loss for Pittsburgh.

Coming off their first loss in 13 games the night before in Philadelphia, the Penguins cranked it up against the Rangers in the first period last night -- particularly late in the period, when they went on a charge and dominated New York for the final 5 or so minutes of the frame.

That sequence involved one stretch where the Pens maintained possession of the puck in the New York zone for nealy 90 seconds, generating scoring chance after scoring chance and taking momentum of the game in the process.

That culminated in a beautiful individual goal by Evgeni Malkin -- his 3rd in the last two games after missing 4 contests with a knee injury -- when he took a pass from Sidney Crosby down the left wing, cut sharply to the goal, deked Rangers' netminder Henrik Lundqvist to the ice, and slid the puck behind him while going the other way.

Since my words probably don't do the goal justice, just watch it here.

With his assist, Crosby raised his point scoring streak to a career-high 20 games, by the way.

The Pens' lead held up into the third period when a bad penalty call against LW Matt Cooke put Pittsburgh a man down just before the halfway mark of the frame.

Cooke was rushing to get the puck in the corner deep in the Rangers zone.  He was in a footrace with New York player Derek Stepan.  No other players were in the area and it should have been plain to anyone watching -- including the guys in black and white stripes -- that they were going to battle to get the biscuit. 

As the two players approached the puck, Cooke tried to get position on Stepan with his shoulder and outmuscle him. 

He did, and knocked Stepan down about 3-5 feet before either player got to the puck, which had come to a dead rest close to both men.

Unfortunately, the official saw that as a tripping call, and not long after Cooke was sent off to the box, former Penguin cast-off Erik Christensen made them pay by beating Johnson with a high wrister from 30 feet to tie the score.

Johnson was too far back in his net on the play, and went down too early.

But Christensen's goal didn't sting as much as the one by the next Rangers' retread to score 15 seconds later.  That was when Alexander Frolov found a loose puck and tossed it by Johnson from the low slot, suddenly transforming what had been a Penguins' lead into one held by the guys wearing blue.

Not long after, it appeared that Geno had scored again on a rush to tie the game, but in the immediate aftermath of the goal when Lundqvist complained to the officials about supposedly being interfered with by Pens' LW Pascal Dupuis, the goal was waved off.

No penalty was called on the Dupuis on the play, which wasn't surprising since he was basically backed into Lunqvist by Rangers' defenseman Michael Rozsival; still, the goaltender interference was sufficient in the eyes of the referree to make the play dead, since he determined that Lundqvist was not able to get into position.

So, with even additional wind out of their sails, New York forward Artem Anisimov scored on a wrister from 35 feet a minute or two later -- on another play that Johnson went down too soon on -- and forward Brian Boyle finished off the ignomity of the game by beating a defeated Johnson and making it 4-1 just 90 seconds later.

Johnson looked pretty good in the first two periods in this game, but morphed in the third period into what we see from him on occasion -- dropping down to his knees to soon and not challenging shooters.  As a backup, he tends to slip into that mode more often.  He wasn't doing that early in the season when he was playing as sharply as any netminder in the game, but obviously, with the Flower back on top of the world and manning the Pens' cage on most nights these days, that's what you're going to get from Johnny, unfortunately.

I'm certain Fleury would not have allowed the Christensen and Anisimov goals, if not the one by Boyle, too. 

But, it is what it is.

And with that, even though the Penguins probably outplayed the Rangers most of the night and outshot them 28-22, and even though New York lost key forward Ryan Callahan in the first period when he broke his hand blocking a shot by Pens' defenseman Kris Letang, it was the opportunistic Rangers that got the "W".

Worse, thanks to the Flyers winning again last night, the Pens' are now suddenly 3 points back in the Atlantic.

Hey, at least Washington lost their 7th straight game.

Anyway, with a bad taste in their mouth and 2 straight losses after reeling off 12 straight wins, the Penguins are now forced to sit back and wait until next Monday to play again when the Phoenix Coyotes come to town.

Expect a bit more focus and attention to detail for the HBO cameras in the next few practices. 

Sepaking of which, I'll have a ton on the first 24/7 Episode -- which premiered last night -- tomorrow.  For those who haven't seen it, find a way to.  It was fantastic.



NOTES:
As expected, LW Chris Kunitz missed his second straight game last night with an undisclosed injury.  It probably made sense to keep him out of the lineup since the Penguins are off until Monday.  Kunitz isn't dealing with anything overwhelming -- he's just a bit banged up -- so hopefully he'll return to action against the 'Yotes.

Defenseman Ben Lovejoy dressed in place of blueliner Deryk Engelland last night, too.

Pittsburgh's top prospect, defenseman Simon Despres, was selected to play for Canada's entry in the World Junior Championships, starting later this month.  That's great recognition for the strong season he's having with the Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.  Despres is only going to be better for the experience at the WJC.