March of the Penguins

PITTSBURGH – Two games were played here over the past three days – one the Pittsburgh Penguins' style and one that conforms to the New York Rangers' ways. The fact that Pittsburgh won both leaves New York with really only one option – go home and hope that's going to aid the cause.

For right now, through 120 minutes of this second-round best-of-seven series, the Penguins have it all over the Rangers, and there's not a lot of indication that is going to change.

"You want to make sure you right your ship in a hurry in these circumstances," New York coach Tom Renney said. "It's a short-term competition."

It will be an even shorter series if the Blueshirts can't find a way to win Tuesday night in midtown Manhattan. Pittsburgh takes a 6-0 postseason record to Broadway, where the Penguins look like they've got a real show-stopping hit on their hands this spring.

"They're a good team, it's not like it's going to be easy," Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist predicted.

After rallying from a 3-0 deficit to win Game 1 on Friday night, the Penguins tightened up defensively every bit as much as the visiting Rangers did. The difference was Pittsburgh converted on its power play and New York did not. An empty-net goal late was window dressing for a 2-0 victory and a 2-0 series lead Sunday.

"I was hoping we could get at least one here, but that's OK," Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr said. "We get to play two games at home and we'll see what happens."

Well, it really wasn't OK. While New York rediscovered its defensively responsible tendencies, the Rangers were almost no threat at the other end, and that included during six power plays.

The Rangers didn't generate any sort of forechecking pressure, and when they didn't muster offense it usually ended up in the glove of Marc-Andre Fleury, who faced mostly perimeter shots in collecting his second shutout of the playoff season with 26 saves.

"When you've got it, you've got to go. We didn't advance the puck as quickly as we needed to," Renney said. "As much as it might have been an improvement from the other night, our game is not where it needs to be in order to win this series."

The closest the visitors came to denting the scoreboard was when Martin Straka repeatedly whacked at a power-play shot by Brandon Dubinsky that Fleury had, at least partially, under his pad. The puck slid across the goal line after the late third-period whistle.

"I had it under my pads and their guy kept swinging at my pads," Fleury said. "I'm glad he finally blew it."

"I thought it was an accurate call," Renney added.

Special teams are always important – and often a deciding factor in the playoffs – and the Rangers are off to a 1-for-9 start on the power play. Renney complimented Pittsburgh's penalty killers for being active, hunting down loose pucks and denying his team through hard work.

New York was hesitant to shoot the puck on the power play Sunday. The Rangers moved the puck plenty on the outside, but either looked for the perfect play and didn't create enough traffic in front of Fleury to tempt the point men to throw more shots toward the net. Once New York worked to earn a penalty, the power-play unit lacked the sense of urgency during the resulting two minutes.

"I'm not going to suggest it was really easy for him, but it certainly could have been tougher," Renney said of Fleury's afternoon.

The game-deciding sequence started when Rangers forward Chris Drury was whistled for hooking Pittsburgh's Petr Sykora behind the New York net 12:22 into the second period.

The Penguins were all over the Rangers during the resulting 5-on-4. Lundqvist was patient to deny Ryan Malone on a mini-break early in the advantage. He stopped Marian Hossa, who was particularly snake bit with all seven of his shots turned aside Sunday. And Lundqvist was lucky when Malone mishandled a puck with an open net and Sidney Crosby fired wide from 15 feet away.

But when Jordan Staal got great position in front there was no stopping it. Evgeni Malkin made a strong play to drive below the left circle and fed Staal perfectly in front. The second-year forward stickhandled to a forehand shot, which he lifted over Lundqvist's right pad for a 1-0 lead at 13:55.

The chess match continued, and Staal was a big part of it at the other end for Pittsburgh. The 19-year-old Staal was on the ice for most of the shifts by the 36-year-old Jagr. And youth definitely won out over experience.

"There weren't many chances," Jagr said. "That was a totally different game than Game 1. Both teams played better defense and were more responsible."

Aside from putting three shots on net during 19:35 of skating, Jagr's most noticeable moments came after whistles when he confronted Crosby on a couple occasions. He wasn't happy about Crosby's ability to draw penalties. The Rangers have made it no secret they think Crosby dives to earn calls, but there's also a level of gamesmanship at play here.

When asked about Jagr's actions, Crosby was quick to reply, "Ask him, I wasn't doing the talking."

And what did Jagr have to say?

"Just play hockey," was his response to the message he was delivering to the opposing captain.

Well, Crosby and the Pens are playing hockey, and they are playing it better than anyone in this postseason to date. Certainly adversity will occur somewhere down the road, whether it's in New York this week, Philadelphia or Montreal in the conference finals or at a western destination in a month.

"It's not over, we have to play good at home," Jagr said.

"At least we got back to our style of play," Drury added. "They've got a good team with a lot of great players. They're going to want to go up 3-0 so we have to be better."

These are the facts. New York owned the second-best home record in the conference during the regular season, only Pittsburgh was better. The Rangers won all four meetings against the Penguins at Madison Square Garden – twice in March with one in overtime, and once each during November and December.

New York trailed Buffalo 2-0 in a second-round series last spring only to return home, win a pair and tie a series the Rangers would eventually lose in six. And New York has rallied from an 0-2 playoff deficit in its somewhat recent past, taking four straight from the Canadiens in 1996.

"They go where they play well," Crosby said. "It's just going to get tougher and we expect that."

But do the Rangers realize that, too?