Pens put Rangers in 2-0 series hole

By The Associated Press

Jordan Staal's game-winning playoff goal for the Pittsburgh Penguins couldn't have made his parents much happier. Or sadder.
Staal's power-play goal in the second period broke a scoreless tie and Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made the lead stand up, giving the Penguins a 2-0 victory Sunday over New York Rangers and a home-ice sweep of the first two games of their second-round series.


Staal's goal came with older brother Marc, a Rangers defenseman on the ice, and was all the offensive support Fleury needed while making 26 saves. Fleury helped the Penguins kill off two key Rangers power plays in the final six-plus minutes before Adam Hall scored into an empty net with 16.7 seconds remaining.

Games 3 and 4 will be Tuesday and Thursday nights at Madison Square Garden, where Pittsburgh is 0-3-1 this season.

Staal's power-play goal at 13:55 of the second came with the Rangers' best penalty killer, Chris Drury, off for hooking. Evgeni Malkin gathered the puck in the left circle and, shedding Marc Staal, fed it down low to Jordan Staal, who shifted from his backhand to his forehand to lift the puck over goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

"He's a great passer," Jordan Staal said. "I'm just glad to be the finisher."

Did he realize who Malkin beat to get him the puck?

"Not really," Staal said. "It's all pretty much a blur out there."

Staal's game-winner no doubt delighted parents Linda and Henry Staal on their sod farm in Thunder Bay, Ontario, but also disappointed them. The Staals' parents decided not to attend the series because they knew one son would be disappointed when it ended.

Older brother Eric Staal of Carolina, a Stanley Cup winner two years ago, cut an NHL commercial in which he jokingly said the playoffs determine which son the Staals like best.

"That's a good question," Jordan Staal said, smiling. "I know they're cheering for a good game. This is tough for them, we know that, but it's part of the game."

Staal has played well in the playoffs so far after having a disappointing sophomore regular season, getting only 12 goals, none short-handed. He had 29 goals and an NHL rookie-record seven short-handed scores as an 18-year-old.

Lundqvist, a Vezina Trophy finalist, played a superlative game with 30 saves, several times making multiple stops with traffic in front of him and the Penguins pressing to take a lead they knew would put further pressure on the Rangers. New York now must sweep the two games at home to regain a tie in the series between Atlantic Division rivals.

"We just have to go back home and still feel confident, we know we can beat this team," Lundqvist said. "We have to go back home and get two wins there and come back here, and it's going to be pressure on them."

So far, it's the much younger Penguins who are standing up to the pressure of the playoffs, becoming the first team in franchise history to win its first six playoff games. The Penguins swept Ottawa in the first round.

"We haven't played our best hockey there (at Madison Square Garden), we know that," Jordan Staal said. "The way we're rolling right now, hopefully we'll be ready for it."

Sidney Crossly didn't score but again occupied the Rangers' attention at both ends of the ice, sometimes in a distracting way. Crosby drew the penalty that led to Malkin's deflected game-winning goal during Pittsburgh's 5-4 victory in Game 1 on Friday, causing some of the Rangers to accuse him of diving to set up the power play.

When Crosby went down again in the first period to draw another penalty, Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr - the former Penguins star - could be seen yelling at Crosby, "Stand up!"

Asked what he said to Crosby, Jagr said, "Just play hockey, that's all."

New York was 0-for-6 on the power play and is 1-for-9 in the series.

"We need a little more traffic (in front against Fleury)," coach Tom Renney said. "I'm not going to suggest it was really easy for him, but it certainly could have been tougher. The big thing for us is to create some momentum of our own at MSG and really take this series back."

Fleury bounced back from his worst game of these playoffs to play his best.

"As a goalie, it never feels good to give up four goals, so I wanted to come back and play a good game," he said.

Martin Straka shoveled the puck between Fleury's pads during New York's next-to-last power play, but referee Dan O'Halloran - who felt the puck had been covered - blew his whistle before it crossed the goal line.

"I thought it was an accurate call," Renney said. "I don't know if it was a quick whistle or not."


Notes
The Penguins are 8-2 in home playoff games against the Rangers. New York lost its previous three playoff series against Pittsburgh. ... Pittsburgh has at least one power-play goal in all six playoff games. ... The Penguins have won Game 2 in their last eight playoff series. ... The Rangers last came back from a 2-0 playoff deficit to win a series in 1996, taking the final four against Montreal.

Rangers blow three-goal lead against Pens

By The Associated Press
A memorable Pittsburgh comeback left the Penguins laughing at each other, an improbable victory accomplished. And left the New York Rangers, with their decided edge in experience, wondering how they possibly could lose such a big lead in such a big game.

Evgeni Malkin deflected Sidney Crosby's one-timer from the right point on a Pittsburgh power play with 1:41 remaining to finish a frantic comeback, and the Penguins rallied from a three-goal deficit against the Rangers for a 5-4 victory in their second-round playoff series opener Friday night.

Petr Sykora and Marian Hossa scored 20 seconds apart early in the third period during Pittsburgh's second such flurry of their rally, and the Penguins shook off Scott Gomez's tying goal midway through the period to win it.

"A game is never finished for us," Sykora said, referring to the Penguins' wealth of scorers. "We have the power to score to score a lot of goals here. It doesn't matter if we're down one, two, three goals."

The Rangers lost for the first time in four road games in these playoffs, an unexpected ending after they seized the momentum and, it seemed, control of the game with a 3-0 lead. But they couldn't have guessed the Penguins would twice score two goals in 20 seconds or less against a team known for its defensive commitment and patience.

"Pittsburgh isn't where they're at because they're a poor team and they don't know how to bounce back," coach Tom Renney said. "We were certainly aware of that - almost to a fault."

Just when it appeared the two Atlantic Division rivals were headed to overtime, one of the many former Penguins who played a key role in the game, Martin Straka, was called for interference with 3:20 remaining.

Crosby took Ryan Whitney's pass and, shooting beyond his normal range from beyond the right circle, put a slap shot on net that deflected off Malkin's shin guard for the Penguins' only power-play goal. The play was briefly reviewed to make sure Malkin didn't kick the puck into the net.

"I saw it was going wide and I reached for it and it hit Malkin's leg and went in," goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. "We just have to forget this. I don't want to think about it, I just want to move on."

Crosby doesn't own the best slap shot, so Malkin marveled at how he could take such a good one at such a key time.

"His slap shot is, uhh, not that good," Malkin said through an interpreter. "That shot he just put everything in it, all the motion, all the power and he shot that puck that hard."

So hard, they probably felt it in New York.

"(Ahead) 3-0 in the playoffs, you'd like to think it's over, but what are you going to do?" Gomez said. "We can't get in a track meet with those guys. It's over, there's nothing you can do about it."

Game 2 is Sunday in Pittsburgh, where the Penguins have won their last 11.

"That one hurts. I thought we had it," Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr said. "The second one is going to be even tougher, but we have to do it somehow."

The Rangers had tied it at 4 after Jagr - who won the Stanley Cup in his first two NHL seasons with Pittsburgh in 1991 and 1992 - carried the puck behind the net, then threw it in front, missing Straka but finding Gomez for a one-timer.

Long before that, Jarkko Ruutu and Pascal Dupuis scored in a span of 14 seconds midway through the second period to get the Penguins back in it after the crafty, patient Rangers appeared to be in control.

"They maybe thought we were going to close the book right there, but we came back hard," Dupuis said.

In a game filled with fortuitous bounces and deflections on a poor ice surface in which nearly every goal ticked off a skate or took a lucky hop, the Rangers took their big lead on goals by Straka, Chris Drury and Sean Avery against Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Drury and Avery, the super pest who riled up the New Jersey Devils during the Rangers' five-game opening round series, scored 1:45 apart early in the second.

Former Penguins defenseman Michal Rozsival had three assists, and defenseman Marc Staal, brother of the Penguins' Jordan Staal, set up two goals. Jordan Staal also had an assist.

But as secure as that 3-0 lead must have looked to Rangers fans with Vezina Trophy finalist Lundqvist in net, the Penguins have the speed and the skill to get back in a game in a hurry. And they did.

"We don't want to behind like that, but we didn't quit and got some bounces and stayed with it," Crosby said. "A lot of goals went off guys. It was one of those weird games where pucks were bouncing everywhere."

Ruutu scored 8:13 into the second to give the white-wearing Penguins crowd its first bit of life since an early surge in which the Penguins had the first eight shots. It became a game again only 14 seconds later when Crosby stole the puck from Christian Backman and set up Dupuis for a one-timer from the left circle.

Hossa tied it early in the third on a goal that may have deflected off Gomez's skate, and Sykora got his fourth of the playoffs only 20 seconds later on a 3-on-2 break with Malkin and Ryan Malone.


Notes
The Penguins are 3-0 in playoff series against the Rangers, winning in 1989, 1992 and 1996. ... Pittsburgh won the first game in each of those series. ... Lundqvist is 12-7-3 against Pittsburgh in his career.

NHL New Year's Day Winter Classic

Sidney Crosby can expect chilly receptions every time he returns to Buffalo.

The Penguins captain somehow saw space between Ryan Miller's pads as he shuffled through driving snow and gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 shootout win over the Buffalo Sabres at the outdoor Winter Classic in front of an NHL-record 71,217 fans on Tuesday.

In elements more suited for football than hockey, Crosby won the NHL's second outdoor game - and first in the United States - in the most dramatic fashion at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home to the Buffalo Bills.

Crosby skated down the middle, eluded a pokecheck by Miller and put a shot between the goalie's pads in the final round.

More people tuned in on New Year's Day to see the NHL play outdoors than any other regular-season game in more than a decade.

The Penguins-Sabres game in snowy Buffalo — the first regular-season outdoor NHL game in the United States — drew a 2.6 overnight rating and a 5 share on NBC. Those were the best numbers since a six-game regional telecast on Fox drew a 3.0 overnight rating and a 7 share on Feb. 3, 1996.

Pittsburgh won 2-1 in a shootout on a Sidney Crosby's score before a crowd of more than 71,000 at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

The big numbers, in the stands and on TV, came three years after the NHL lockout forced the cancellation of an entire season and after last season's Stanley Cup finals on NBC drew record-low ratings.

"We're delighted by the success of this historic event," NBC Sports president Ken Schanzer said. "The Winter Classic exposed hockey to a larger audience and definitely made new fans of the game."

The Winter Classic ratings also surpassed Wayne Gretzky's final game, which was broadcast on Fox on April 18, 1999, and drew a 2.5/6.

The Buffalo and Pittsburgh markets led the ratings, at 38.2/58 and 17.7/30, respectively. But markets such as Sacramento, Calif., St. Louis and Denver also drew strong ratings, even though the game went up against a number of college football bowl games, including an intriguing Capital One Bowl between Florida and Michigan.

"This was one of the best events I've ever been a part of as a player, coach or broadcaster," NBC game analyst Eddie Olczyk said. "It truly was a memorable experience and a great day for the sport of hockey."

Overnight ratings measure the 55 largest TV markets in the United States, and each ratings point represents about 735,000 households. The rating is the percentage watching a telecast among homes with televisions, and the share is the percentage tuned into a broadcast among those households with televisions on at the time.

Check Out the video above. Skip Ahead to the shootout, the best part of the game!