Rangers a Game Down After Dropping Game Three at Home

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The New York Rangers came back to the Garden for game three of their first round series against the Penguins with hopes of taking two in a row. Their hopes soon turned to dashed dreams as the Penguins found a way to squeak past them for a 2-1 win.

It started off well enough for the Rangers as they engaged in an early back and forth, wide-open affair with the Penguins. The Rangers thought they had an early lead when Chris Kreider put a puck into the net on a power play, but upon further review it was deemed that the team was offsides when entering the offensive zone, negating the goal.

The Rangers fell back on their heels after that reversal of fortune, but still found a way to grab a lead in the second via a Rick Nash shorthanded goal. Again the Rangers level of play seemed to fall off following this and on a power play just before the end of the second period the Penguins tied the game.

The Rangers fell completely flat on their face in the third period — both literally and in terms of energy— as they failed to generate any offense. The lone goal of the period, which was scored by former Ranger Matt Cullen, was a result of Dan Boyle and Keith Yandle bumping into each other and falling down, giving Cullen a clean chance on goal that he would easily finish off.

It was a very frustrating loss for the Rangers because they had a goal that was taken away from them and still managed to take a lead but couldn’t hold on. They also only mustered up 17 shots in total for the game, which is just unacceptable when you’re trying to win a playoff game.

The Rangers got physical with the Penguins by laying in some heavy hits but ultimately it doesn’t matter how many big hits you land if you fail to land the biggest one of all on the scoreboard.

The Rangers will try to turn it around and even the series up at home on Thursday night at 7:00 pm.