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NEW YORK — By the middle of the third period last night, even the New York Rangers' notoriously diehard fans in the upper reaches had thrown in the towel, turning their anger on their heroes and finally on themselves in a series of punch-ups.
Down on the ice, the Rangers were punchless by the third period, having thrown everything they had at the Pittsburgh Penguins, only to run up against goaltender Marc-André Fleury, who has never been bad in this NHL playoff series, but was far better last night than his Rangers counterpart, Henrik Lundqvist, for the first time.
And there was the Penguins' 21-year-old budding superstar, Evgeni Malkin, who was nominated for the NHL's most-valuable-player award earlier in the day and then countered Rangers star Jaromir Jagr's superb individual effort with his own, including the decisive goal on a second-period power play.
The result was a 5-3 win, the first for the Penguins this season at Madison Square Garden, that put the Rangers on the cusp of their summer vacations. The Penguins, who swept the Ottawa Senators in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, lead the best-of-seven semi-final 3-0 and can finish off the Rangers tomorrow night.
New York Rangers winger Jaromir Jagr trips Marian Hossa of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first period during Game 3 of an NHL Eastern Conference semi-final hockey playoff series Tuesday. (Julie Jacobson/Associated Press)
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Jagr, though, remained defiant, bringing up the worst choke job in New York sports history, the 2004 collapse of the New York Yankees to the Boston Red Sox in baseball's American League Championship Series. He did not seem aware of the irony.
"It's pretty tough to be down 3-0, but they have to win four games," the Rangers' forward said. "They have to close it. Even such a great team like the Yankees didn't hold a 3-0 lead. They are the best ever. We can make history."
Last night's game swung on a second-period penalty taken by Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg at 15:56. At that point, despite the continuing woes of their power play, the Rangers had seized the momentum on two goals by Ryan Callahan and Jagr that tied the score 3-3.
But then Hollweg, who is no stranger to this sort of thing, drove Penguins winger Petr Sykora into the boards. Hollweg was given a double-minor penalty for boarding and the Penguins' power play struck for the second time, with Malkin scoring on a one-time shot from the point. He finished the game with two power-play goals and an assist.
"We came close to killing it, but were unsuccessful at the end of the day," Rangers head coach Tom Renney said. "That was probably the turning point in the game as far as I can tell."
The Penguins felt the same way.
"There is no doubt that was a huge goal for us," Penguins head coach Michel Therrien said. "We kind of lost our focus in the second [period]. We were undisciplined and gave them a lot of life."
Almost as important in the Penguins' eyes was a great stretch of work by their penalty killers earlier in the second period. The Penguins took three penalties in succession, which gave the Rangers two separate 5-on-3 chances for 42 and 33 seconds, respectively. But they were unable to do anything with them and their fans let them hear about it.
At one point during the second two-man advantage, Penguins defenceman Rob Scuderi blocked a shot and was hurt. As he hobbled around, unable to get off the ice, the Penguins were effectively reduced to two players, but the Rangers' power play still could not produce a scoring chance.
"Maybe the pressure is getting to us a little bit," Jagr said. "We know we have to score [on the power play]. That was the difference. They scored on their opportunities and we didn't score on our opportunities. We just have to focus on the next game."
Still, the Rangers came back after that to tie the score. But then Hollweg made his great mistake and Ryan Malone scored early in the third period to ice the game for Pittsburgh.
"[Malkin] certainly was a strength," Renney said. "He was good. There's no two ways about that.
"As a team, what is impressive about [the Penguins] is that they are bending, but not breaking. That is maybe something they have going for themselves now. We appreciate that, but we are going to keep coming at them."
Marian Hossa and Georges Laraque also scored for the Penguins, while Martin Straka had the other Rangers goal.
