NEW YORK _ Believe the hype.
Fans were super excited when the Rangers got the chance to draft Kaapo Kakko with the No. 2 pick overall this summer, and the 18-year-old Finnish rookie is showing why.
Kakko had his first two-goal game in the NHL on Tuesday, with the second one coming 2:24 into overtime to give the Rangers a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, who were playing without their captain, Sidney Crosby.
Skating in the 3-on-3 overtime period, Kakko drove the net and tipped in a pass from Adam Fox, who also had a goal in regulation, for the winner. Alexandar Georgiev made 30 saves in regulation and overtime to get the win for the Rangers.
The Rangers had several golden chances to score the potential winner late in regulation. Pavel Buchnevich didn't get good wood on his backdoor tip try with 6:18 remaining, and goaltender Matt Murray saved it.
Murray, laying on his side on the ice, got his pads up and stopped Brendan Lemieux's shot with 5:30 remaining. The Rangers also had a power play, with 4:10 left, when Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin was sent off for tripping Greg McKegg. But they couldn't take advantage.
Rangers coach David Quinn didn't believe, for one minute, that missing Crosby _ who suffered an undisclosed injury in Pittsburgh's game Saturday vs. Chicago and didn't make the trip to New York _ would make the Penguins an easy mark for his team.
"Listen, they're obviously a much better hockey team with Crosby, but what you usually see when _ and you've probably seen it with us a little bit, you know, we lose Mika (Zibanejad) and guys have stepped up," Quinn said before the game. "And people may look at it as an opportunity to take advantage of the ice time that is available. And that tends to happen."
Of course, Quinn and his team were without their own No. 1 center in Zibanejad, who missed his seventh straight game with an upper-body injury. And somehow, the Rangers had managed to go 4-1-1 against some top-level opponents _ in their first six games without Zibanejad.
Ryan Strome, the 26-year-old, former No. 5 pick overall by the Islanders, was a big part of their recent success. Strome, who had stepped up into Zibanejad's spot on the first line between Artemi Panarin and Jesper Fast had three goals and five assists (eight points) in the six games prior to Tuesday. On the season, he had 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in 15 games, second on the team behind Panarin.
"He's done a really good job," Quinn said of Strome. " 'Stromer's taken advantage of his opportunity and that line's been productive, offensively."
It was Kakko, though, who got the Rangers off to a fast start. Kakko, who was flying all night, was sent on a breakaway by Lemieux and he calmly went to the backhand and slid the puck past Murray for his fifth goal of the season at 6:42 of the first period.
The Rangers had the territorial advantage for most of the first half of the period, but a couple of hooking penalties, to Brett Howden and Panarin, helped the Penguins get some momentum.
However, just after Panarin got out of the penalty box, he was able to set up Fox for his third goal of the season, which came with 9.3 seconds left in the first period and put the Rangers up, 2-0.
But the Penguins rallied in the second period, tying the game with goals by defenseman Justin Schultz and center Jared McCann. Schultz was able to walk down from the point and lift a wrist shot up in the top corner for his second goal of the season, at 1:13, and McCann scored on a power play, with Fox in the box for hooking. McCann was first to a loose puck in the right circle and whipped it over Georgiev's catching glove at 12:33.
