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Thursday, Oct. 14 7:30pm ET
Pens blast Rangers netminders | |||||
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NEW YORK (AP) -- A great start helped the Pittsburgh Penguins finish the New York Rangers.
"It's one of those days when we worked a little harder than they did," Alexei Kovalev said after the Penguins beat the Rangers 5-2 Thursday night. The Penguins got an early jump by scoring three goals in the game's first 13 minutes, then held off the Rangers with the help of backup Peter Skudra's goaltending and a solid defense. Skudra made 28 saves, including 13 in the third period when the Rangers outshot the Penguins 14-3. "We were a real poor starting team over the last two games, so we were trying to get off to a better start, not dig ourselves a hole," Penguins coach Kevin Constantine said. "We were fortunate we did that tonight." Kovalev, Ian Moran and Robert Lang scored in the first 13 minutes, chasing Kirk McLean, and the Penguins went on to stop the Rangers' winning streak at three games. Milan Hnilicka replaced McLean and didn't fare much better in his first NHL appearance, giving up goals to Jaromir Jagr and Brown before McLean came back to start the third period. "We knew they are a talented team up front and that they could handle the puck," McLean said. "We all came out pretty flat. We picked it up a little in the second and third (but) going down 3-0 to that squad, it's tough to come back." Skudra, who initially replaced the injured Tom Barrasso in last Thursday's 7-5 win over the New Jersey Devils, improved to 2-0-1 in the absence of the Penguins' No. 1 goalie. The Rangers outshot the Penguins 30-18 overall. McLean was starting his fifth straight game in place of Mike Richter, who has been sidelined with a back injury. Petr Nedved and Sylvain Lefebvre scored for New York. Kovalev gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead when he scored from the slot at 6:25 of the first period. Moran made it 2-0 with a slap shot from the blue line at 10:26. Lang beat McLean from in front at 12:24 after a nice setup pass from behind the goal line by Matthew Barnaby. Nedved cut Pittsburgh's lead to two goals when he scored from the slot at 18:57. It was the first score of the season for the Rangers' No. 1 center after six goal-less games. The Penguins went ahead 5-1 in the final three minutes of the second period on goals by Jagr and Brown. Jagr scored at 17:10 on a slap shot from 50 feet on the right side, and Brown at 1:03 from the high slot. Lefebrve scored a third-period goal for the Rangers. "We played very poorly," Rangers coach John Muckler said. "We had nothing going right in the first period. It wasn't the goalkeeper's fault -- it was everybody's fault." | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Pittsburgh Clubhouse NY Rangers Clubhouse RECAPS Atlanta 2 NY Islanders 0
Pittsburgh 5 AUDIO/VIDEO   Alexei Kovalev scores from the slot with 6:25 left in the first period.avi: 936 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Matthew Barnaby's behind the goal line pass to Robert Lang for the goal.avi: 710 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   | |||||
