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Penguins 6, Rangers 3

By Dave Molinari 7 years ago

A quick look at the Penguins’ 6-3 victory against the New York Rangers in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series Saturday at Consol Energy Center:

*** The victory moved the Penguins into Round 2 of the playoffs, where they will face the survivor of the Washington-Philadelphia series. The Capitals have a 3-2 lead going into Game 6 in Philadelphia Sunday.

*** The Penguins earned their victory with a dominating performance during the second period, when they ran off unanswered goals by Bryan Rust, Matt Cullen and Conor Sheary. “We just played our game,” right winger Phil Kessel said. “We used our speed. The little things. And we got rewarded.”

*** The victory was the Penguins’ first in a playoff series since they defeated Columbus in six games during Round 1 in 2014. The Rangers had ended their season each of the past two springs.

*** Penguins goalie Matt Murray stopped 38 of 41 shots to earn his third victory in the series.

*** The Penguins had lost two of the previous three series in which they held a 3-1 lead, so closing out this one quickly was a real priority. “We certainly didn’t want to have to go back to New York for Game 6,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.

*** Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, widely viewed as the key to New York’s chances of staging an upset, stopped only eight of 12 shots during second period and was replaced by backup Antti Raanta for the second game in a row.

*** The Penguins’ power play was 1-2 and finished the series 8-for-21, while the penalty-kill allowed just its second goal of the series. The power play was a huge difference-maker in all of the games,” Sullivan said. “So was the penalty-kill.”

*** This is the second time the Penguins have won a series at Consol Energy Center. The other was a Round 2 meeting with Ottawa in 2013.

*** Only seven players in the Penguins’ lineup dressed for Game 5 against New York last year, and none of them scored a goal. Right winger Patric Hornqvist, comparing this team to the 2015 edition: “We were not good enough last year We’re a way better team this year.”

*** Ten of the 12 Penguins forwards who played in Game 5 scored at least one goal in the series.

*** Rust’s two goals were the first of his playoff career.

*** Kessel had three goals and three assists in the series.

*** Carl Hagelin scored the Penguins’ first goal, his first in the series against his former team.

*** Sidney Crosby had two assists, giving him eight points in the series. That tied him, at least temporarily, for the top spot in the league scoring race.

*** Evgeni Malkin had at least one assist in each of the final four games in the series.

*** Nick Bonino had five assists in the series.

*** The Penguins are 32-32 when they have an opportunity to close out a series, and this is just the second time in the past 10 tries that they were able to do it at home.