Anthony Mantha and Noel Acciari each scored twice as the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the New York Rangers 6-5 at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday. The victory marked the Penguins’ sixth consecutive win, bringing their season record to 28-14-11. During this winning streak, Pittsburgh has outscored opponents by a margin of 31-15.
Rickard Rakell contributed a goal and an assist, while Blake Lizotte and Connor Dewar each recorded two assists for the Penguins. Goaltender Stuart Skinner made 15 saves in the game.
“There’s things we’ll clean up,” said Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse. “But we did the things we needed to do to win. … There were definitely more positives than anything.”
For the Rangers, Alexis Lafreniere led with two goals and an assist. Vincent Trocheck added a goal and two assists, while Vladislav Gavrikov also tallied a goal and an assist. Jonathan Quick stopped 28 shots for New York, which has now lost three straight games and 11 of its last 13.
“I’m proud of the guys, the way they compete,” said Rangers coach Mike Sullivan. “They just stick to it. I thought we competed hard in the third period, but we take too many penalties, you know? And they’re just lack-of-discipline penalties. … It taxes some of our top players.”
Mantha opened scoring at 2:37 of the first period by deflecting a shot from Rutger McGroarty. Acciari extended the lead to 2-0 at 6:05 with a one-timer off a pass from Lizotte.
Mantha increased Pittsburgh’s advantage to 3-0 in the second period with his fifth goal in four games and nineteenth this season after receiving a backhand pass from Rakell.
Asked about his performance during his first season with Pittsburgh, Mantha said: “Confidence. The trust level from the team, teammates, coaches, my work I put in mentally, physically. And good things are happening.”
Lafreniere cut into Pittsburgh’s lead late in the second period on a power play goal for New York.
Early in the third period, Rakell scored on a power play before Acciari found another goal just twenty seconds later following a missed shot by Lizotte.
“Can’t let up two goals in 20 seconds,” Trocheck said. “We’ve got to be paying more attention to detail. … We were in right spots a lot of times too. We were where we’re supposed to be. We’re not executing our job. We just have to be better at that.
“Giving up six goals, giving up two in 20. You just can’t do it.”
Trocheck responded for New York with a short-handed breakaway goal midway through the third period before Gavrikov narrowed Pittsburgh’s lead further minutes later.
Ben Kindel scored an empty-netter for Pittsburgh near game’s end before New York closed out scoring with goals from Lafreniere and Will Cuylle.
“It’s a little closer than we would have liked,” said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. “But sometimes you have to win games like that. Entertaining for the fans and for the guys that were in attendance. So yeah, we’ll take the two points and try to learn from it.”
Lafreniere scored again late in regulation followed by Cuylle’s rebound tally for New York.
“I don’t know. Score five goals and lose the game,” said Rangers captain J.T Miller.”I guess the only positive today is we didn’t quit, kept pushing.Came down to the wire.But when you have to score six times,it’s pretty hard to win the game.I don’t know.I like that we didn’t quit.That’s about it.”
Dan Muse became only the second coach in Penguins history—alongside Mike Sullivan—to achieve multiple winning streaks of at least six games during his first season with Pittsburgh (also recording six wins between December 28th and January 8th). Defenseman Erik Karlsson registered his 700th NHL assist on Rakell’s goal; he is now one of twelve defensemen league-wide to reach this milestone achievement.Defenseman Kris Letang was placed on injured reserve due to a foot fracture,and will miss at least four weeks.New York forward Noah Laba left early due an upper-body injury; no update was provided.
