NEW YORK — Rangers fans waited five years to see playoff hockey again at Madison Square Garden and they’ll get to see at least another home game.
After dropping the series opener in three overtimes on Tuesday, the Rangers bounced back Thursday when Artemi Panarin, held scoreless in Game 1, and Frank Vatrano, each had a goal and two assists as the Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 in Game 2 of the teams’ first-round series.
The Rangers appeared to escape what could have been a devastating blow when goaltender Igor Shesterkin was flattened on a hit by Pittsburgh’s Jeff Carter with 2:04 remaining in the third period. Shesterkin lay on his back and writhed in pain for a few moments, and the training staff came out to check on him. But he was able to get up on his own and finish the game.
Carter was assessed a two-minute penalty for goaltender interference on the play.
The victory evened the best-of-seven series at one game apiece, and the series shifts to Pittsburgh for the next two games, with Game 3 coming up on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Panarin, who assisted on the first two goals, by Andrew Copp and Ryan Strome, scored his first goal of the playoffs at 8:02 of the third period to give the Rangers a little breathing room and a 4-2 lead. He skated behind the net and backhanded a pass toward the goal crease and the puck banked in off Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson and past goaltender Louis Domingue.
Vatrano made it 5-2 a minute and 47 seconds later when he slipped by Matheson on a rush up the right wing boards, cut in, and whipped a wrist shot over the right shoulder of the righthanded-catching Domingue.
Pittsburgh started the game with Domingue (35 saves), it’s third-string goaltender, in net, after backup Casey DeSmith had been forced to leave Game 1 in the second overtime because of a lower-body injury. No. 1 goalie Tristan Jarry is already out with a lower body injury, believed to be a broken foot.
Pittsburgh also was without forward Rickard Rakell and Brian Dumoulin, who both suffered injuries in Game 1, while the Rangers were without defenseman Ryan Lindgren and forward Barclay Goodrow, whom coach Gerard Gallant said were “banged up.’’
Meanwhile, Shesterkin, who made a Rangers record 79 saves in Game 1, was back in goal for the Blueshirts and just as sharp as always. He made 39 saves, many of them of the highest quality. Shesterkin was especially busy in the second period, when the Rangers were outshot, 17-14, and in the early part of the third, before Panarin cooled the pressure off with his goal.
The Rangers were helped by getting a couple of power plays in Game 2, which was something they didn’t see much of in the series opener. The Blueshirts had finished fourth in the regular season in power play efficiency, scoring on 25.2 percent of their attempts, but they only got one power play in Game 1 – Fox scored on it to give them a 1-0 lead -- while Pittsburgh got four power plays.
“There probably should have been a couple of calls made, definitely, when you look back at it,’’ Gallant said. “But again, we're not going to complain. We're going to go play our game.’’
On Thursday, Pittsburgh got two power plays in the first period, and failed to score on either, but the game was 1-1 after one, with the Rangers’ Copp and the Penguins’ Jake Guentzel trading goals, and the Rangers got their second power play of the series at 1:05 of the second period, when Pittsburgh’s John Marino cross-checked Copp. Strome made it count when he tipped in Fox’s shot to put the Rangers up 2-1 at 2:59.
Chris Kreider then redirected a shot by Vatrano past Domingue to make it 3-1 at 12:06 of the period and the Garden was rocking then. But Sidney Crosby pulled the Penguins within 3-2 with a brilliant effort to get to the slot and beat Justin Braun to a rebound and got that past Shesterkin at 18:34.
