Penguins beat Rangers for 4th straight victory

The Penguins’ 3-2 win against the New York Rangers at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday followed a pretty familiar and basic plot.

They fell behind early then came back to win.

But their fourth consecutive victory had a surprising twist that went off-script.

It came in regulation.

A goal by forward Jake Guentzel late in the third period assured the Penguins their first victory of the season that did not require an overtime period or shootout sequence.

But beyond that, this triumph was very similar to the three that preceded it.

Another deficit. Another injury. And another two points.

This victory also fortified a sense of assurance that no comeback is beyond the Penguins’ reach.

“For us, we’re developing a sense of confidence,” forward Bryan Rust said. “I don’t know if that’s good because we’ve been in that situation a lot early on. But we’re developing that confidence knowing that it doesn’t matter how many goals that we’re down or what the situation in the game is. We can always make a push, we can always come back.

“Moving forward, we just need to focus on our starts in being good there.”

The start to this game was anything but good as the Rangers claimed a 1-0 lead 16:36 into regulation. when forward Colin Blackwell deflected a point shot through goaltender Tristan Jarry’s five hole for his first goal of the season.

The Penguins’ fortunes did not improve midway through the second period when Evan Rodrigues left the game at the 9:11 mark after he slammed Rangers forward Filip Chytil to the ice with a check at the Penguins’ blue line. Both players were injured on the play and did not complete the contest. There was no update on Rodrigues after the game.

Rodrigues’ absence led to Rust being promoted to the first line as well as the Penguins’ first goal at 11:24 of the second. After Rust broke up a Rangers pass in the defensive zone, forward Sidney Crosby corralled the puck and fed a lead pass to Rust racing up ice. Attacking the net, Rust fired a wrister through goaltender Igor Shesterkin’s five hole for his second goal.

Rust’s malleability came as no surprise to Penguins coach Mike Sullivan.

“There are not too many guys on our team that (Rust) hasn’t played with,” Sullivan said. “He’s a pretty versatile guy that can play up and down the lineup. He had a pretty strong game tonight.”

New York took back a 2-1 lead at 17:17 when forward Ryan Strome scored on a goalmouth scramble.

The Penguins managed to forge a 2-2 tie only 2:26 into the third when forward Jared McCann claimed a loose puck on the Rangers’ left half wall and fired a wrister. Shesterkin was caught off guard and allowed the puck to beat him over the right shoulder on the near side.

Victory was secured at 18:29 of the third. Defenseman Kris Letang took the puck in deep on the left wing of the offensive zone, drawing in Rangers forward Chris Kreider. That opened up space above the left circle for Guentzel. Taking a feed from Letang, Guentzel whacked a one-timer that glanced off Shesterkin’s stick and into the cage for his second goal of the season and 100th of this career.

“Really nice play by (Letang) to hold it up and wait for me,” Guentzel said. “I just tried to find some soft area for him behind that forward that was defending him. Just a real heads up play by him. I’ll take that any day.”

Jarry made 23 saves on 25 shots for his second win, even if it wasn’t scripted as hoped.

“We’ve got a ways to go,” Sullivan said. “We’ve got to get better in certain areas.

“But on a positive side, I think the resilience this group has shown in the first handful of games here is encouraging. It’s such an important aspect of winning in this league. Things don’t always go your way out there. Your ability to respond to those adversities and the ebbs and flows of the game go a long way to dictating your ability to have success.”

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