The Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t necessarily deviating from how they go about their business sans the services of superstar center Sidney Crosby.
But in their first regular-season game without Crosby since April 2022, they strayed from the usual level of success they have enjoyed most of the season.
That’s to say they enjoyed an infrequent road win Friday, defeating the New York Rangers, 3-2, at Madison Square Garden with Crosby scratched with a suspected left arm injury.
It was only the Penguins’ 10th road victory this season (10-14-5), one of the lowest such totals in the NHL.
Hobbled during a 3-2 home shootout loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, Crosby was scratched Friday, snapping a consecutive games played streak of 229. That sequence was the longest active streak on the team and the ninth-longest in franchise history.
One streak that continued was the absence of the team’s other superstar center, Evgeni Malkin, who missed his fifth consecutive game with an undisclosed injury. That prompted the team to install Rickard Rakell, typically deployed as a winger, as the top-line center to open Friday’s contest.
Adding to the Penguins’ personnel woes Friday was the premature departure of fourth-line forward Boko Imama, who did not record a shift beyond the 2 minute, 25 second mark of the second period. There was no substantive word on his status beyond the team posting on a social media outlet that he had suffered an undisclosed injury.
“We’re going to put the best group on the ice that we have available to us,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan proclaimed Wednesday in Cranberry. “That’s the way we look at it. It’s a next-man-up mindset. Regardless of what our injury situation looks like, that’s always the approach we’ve taken. Players embrace that challenge.”
Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck, a native of Upper St. Clair, embraced the charity of an ugly turnover by Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson and opened the scoring with his 17th goal of the season 8:31 into regulation.
Karlsson forced a pass from his own right corner, only to have it deflected by forechecking Rangers forward Alexis Lafreniere. Trocheck settled the puck in the near circle and ripped a wrister by goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic’s blocker.
Penguins forward Blake Lizotte snapped a 16-game goalless streak with his ninth score 2:25 into the second period.
Karlsson made amends for his miscue and stole a pass in the neutral zone then chipped the puck into the Rangers’ zone up the right wing. Penguins forward Noel Acciari chased the puck down on the half-wall, spun off a check from Rangers defenseman Zach Jones and then offloaded a backhand pass to the near faceoff dot. Lizotte accepted the pass and elevated a far-side wrister by goaltender Igor Shesterkin’s blocker.
The Rangers restored a lead only 74 seconds later via defenseman Adam Fox’s fourth goal, a wrister from the right circle that beat Nedeljkovic’s blocker.
Rakell registered his team-leading 25th goal at 9:07 of the second.
Off a give-and-go sequence with linemate Bryan Rust, Rakell attacked the cage from New York’s left circle and flipped a forehand shot over an aggressive Shesterkin’s left leg on the far side.
The Penguins’ first lead of the contest came at 11:59 of the second period when forward Philip Tomasino tallied his seventh goal during a power-play sequence.
Settling a rimmed puck behind the Rangers’ cage, Penguins forward Michael Bunting veered to the right corner and centered a pass below the lower right hashmark. Fending off Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller, Rust deftly deflected the puck to the left circle, where Tomasino leaned down on his right leg and pumped a wrister through Shesterkin’s five hole.
Starting a season-high fifth consecutive game, Nedeljkovic stopped 22 of 24 shots and his record improved to 12-9-5.
Note: Forward Emil Bemstrom was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday morning and made his season debut at the NHL level, opening the contest as the left wing of the third line.