Philip Tomasino’s tiebreaking score highlighted a three-goal second period as the Pittsburgh Penguins, minus superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, gutted out a 3-2 road win over the New York Rangers on Friday night.
Blake Lizotte scored early in the second, then after New York went up 2-1, Rickard Rakell and Tomasino each had a goal, both assisted by Bryan Rust, to give Pittsburgh a lead it never relinquished.
Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves for the Penguins, who were outshot 8-0 in third period, but killed two Rangers’ power plays in the final 6:15 to improve to 3-0-1 in their last four.
Pittsburgh native Vincent Trocheck and Adam Fox scored for New York, which was trying for a third straight win in this battle of teams outside of playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
Malkin (lower-body injury) was out a fifth consecutive contest, while Crosby (upper-body injury) had his streak of 229 regular-season games played end Friday. It marked the first time since Nov. 13, 2021, that the Penguins were without Crosby and Malkin for the same regular-season game.
Things looked bleak early for Pittsburgh, when Erik Karlsson carelessly sent the puck from his own corner, which deflected off the stick of the Rangers’ Alexis Lafreniere and onto that of Trocheck, who picked his spot to beat Nedeljkovic at 8:31 into the game.
However, Karlsson redeemed himself 2:25 into the second period. After intercepting a Matt Rempe pass in the neutral zone, he got the puck to Noel Acciari, who backhanded a pass for Lizotte to get by Igor Shesterkin (23 saves).
New York, though, regained the lead a little more than a minute later. Nedeljkovic couldn’t catch up to Fox’s brilliant drive from the circle.
But Pittsburgh wasn’t through in the middle frame.
On the transition, Rust and Rakell went back and forth before the latter converted a nifty goal to make it 2-2 with 10:53 left in the second. Then less than three minutes later, on the power play, with Rust again involved, an open Tomasino converted from the low slot to put the visitors ahead.
