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The Rangers lost one of their best players at the end of the first period on Saturday night.
Colin Blackwell, who had entered the day with a point in three straight games since his recall from the cab team earlier in the week, suffered an upper body injury midway through the first period and is not returned for the rest of the Rangers 5. -4 loss in overtime against the Penguins.
“I didn’t see him,” coach David Quinn said after the game. “Still in the process of evaluating, we don’t know at the moment what its status is.”
Blackwell, who was denied another goal on a good opportunity early in the first period, did not play the 9:13 final of the period after going into the room.
Kaapo Kakko was pushed back to take changes on the second row in place of Blackwell on the right wing, alongside Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome, before the lines were later mixed up.
The Rangers deployed their new units on the power play for the second game in a row and after generating plenty of chances on their first three chances on Saturday, they finally converted to man advantage to break a drought of 0 in 8 in their last three games.
The new first unit, with defensemen Adam Fox and Tony DeAngelo joining Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich, were on the ice for Panarin’s power play goal at the end of the second period.
The second unit consisting of Jacob Trouba, Chris Kreider, Alexis Lafreniere, Strome and Kakko also got more work than in their first game together on Thursday as the Rangers finished 1v5 on the power play on Saturday.
“I think the two units give you a little different look,” Quinn said. “It’s a small sample size, but we just felt the two units, we needed to shake things up.
Defenseman Jack Johnson missed his second straight game with a groin strain, with Brendan Smith continuing to hold his place alongside DeAngelo. Smith was benched for the entire third period after being on the ice for each of the Penguins’ first three goals. “Just a decision we made with Smitty,” Quinn said.
Kevin Rooney scored his first goal as a Ranger on a shorthanded strike to tie the game two-handed in the second period. Rooney and K’Andre Miller let loose for a 2v0, with Miller delivering a perfect back-and-forth pass for Rooney to finish.
Rooney now has 11 career goals, including four shorthanded.
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