The New York Rangers overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in a shootout at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves, including key stops in overtime and the shootout, while Vincent Trocheck scored the decisive goal in the skills competition. The win snapped a five-game skid for New York, which returns from the Olympic break with renewed momentum.
The Penguins jumped out to a strong start, dominating the first period with 10 shots to New York's two. Anthony Mantha opened the scoring at 2:08 on a power-play tip-in from Erik Karlsson's point shot, giving Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead. Bryan Rust appeared to extend it to 2-0 at 3:00 with a snap shot from a cross-ice pass by Evgeni Malkin, but Rangers coach Mike Sullivan successfully challenged for goaltender interference, as video review showed Mantha impairing Shesterkin's movement in the crease.
In the second period, Ryan Shea made it 2-0 at 1:59, spinning away from Noah Laba at the point and wristing a shot that deflected off New York defenseman Scott Morrow. The Rangers responded on the power play when Mika Zibanejad one-timed a pass from Trocheck at 10:00, cutting the deficit to 2-1. Zibanejad's goal marked his 338th in the NHL, passing Henrik Zetterberg for seventh-most by a Sweden-born player, and his 132nd power-play tally tied Nicklas Lidstrom for fourth among Swedish players.
New York tied the game early in the third at 2:57 on Taylor Raddysh's redirection of Vladislav Gavrikov's shot from above the crease. The Penguins had chances to regain the lead, including a breakaway by Tommy Novak denied by Shesterkin at 15:02 of the second, but the score held until overtime. Shesterkin made five saves in the extra frame, including stops on high-danger chances from Malkin's line.
In the shootout, Trocheck beat Stuart Skinner in the first round, and Shesterkin denied Mantha and Egor Chinakhov before Novak missed the net. Skinner finished with 23 saves for Pittsburgh, which fell to 1-9 in shootouts this season. "We got away from what was working," Penguins coach Dan Muse said. "A lot of those elements weren't there in the second and third."
The Rangers improved to 23-29-7, tying for the 10th-highest single-game faceoff percentage (76.9%) since tracking began in 1997-98. Tye Kartye made his Rangers debut with six hits in 12:39, and Brendan Brisson earned his first point as a Ranger with an assist on Raddysh's goal. Pittsburgh, now 30-15-13, hosts Vegas on Sunday without captain Sidney Crosby, out at least four weeks with a lower-body injury from the Olympics.
