Rangers take advantage again as Sidney Crosby OT goal lifts Penguins

The Rangers lived and died with a one-goal lead and one-goal games early in the season.

They were run over by both once again on Saturday night.

Sidney Crosby delivered the dagger in overtime to push the Penguins past the Rangers, 5-4, at the Garden.

The Crosby winner, at 2:27 into extra time, came at the end of a long shift for Tony DeAngelo, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, who looked exhausted after being on the ice for two minutes consecutive (DeAngelo just shy) while the penguins made several line changes.

But the Rangers lost the game in the third period, which they entered with a 4-3 lead after coming back from three separate one-goal deficits. The Penguins tilted the ice in the final 20 minutes of regulation, leading to the fourth time in the last five games that the Rangers have taken a one-goal lead in the third period.

“It seemed like a lot of fun for them in the third period,” said Chris Kreider visibly frustrated.

“It’s a recurring thing at this point. We have shown what we can do in spurts. We figure out what we need to do to be successful, and then they increased the intensity a bit in the third period and all of a sudden we pull away from them and head east-west without going into the areas. You are not winning at the level of the NHL by doing this. When the blow came in the third period, they were going north, they were putting pucks behind our D, something we had done all night and pulled through all night and we just pulled away.

Jake Guentzel tied the game at four halfway through the third with a goal that came on a second rebound attempt. Alexandar Georgiev (33 saves) had stopped the first two close shots but could not make a third save.

The Rangers were swept away by the Penguins in a two-game match in Pittsburgh last week, including a shootout loss. In those two games, the Rangers had taken a one-goal lead in the third period, only to see it evaporate both times. Saturday was more or less the same as the Rangers played their sixth straight game with a goal, with only one victory to show.

“Probably as bad a time as we have been playing all year,” said coach David Quinn. “They beat us with every loose puck, they won every battle. … They were smarter and looked like a bit hungrier than we were in the third period. They just won a lot of running races to lose pucks, they won battles and we were very soft around our net.

The Rangers came out strong and even after falling behind, they found an answer for the Penguins’ first three goals. Brendan Lemieux, Kevin Rooney (shorthanded) and Kreider all scored equalizer before Artemi Panarin gave the Rangers their first lead of the game, 4-3, on a power-play strike late in the game. second period.

Then came the third period, when the Rangers struggled to get pucks behind the Penguins’ defense and slowly saw another lead slip through their hands.

“It’s just winning in hockey,” Kreider said. “No team in the league can just throw their sticks out there and play east-west and try to win. You have to go north at some point. There is not enough space, there is not enough time. You have to turn their D. You have to make them do 200 feet. [Instead], we flip the washers over the lines, return the washers to the neutral zone, don’t make them dig the washers out of the corners.