Rangers Go Down 0-2

The Rangers lost 2-0 to the Pittsburgh Penguins with all the excitement of a high school math class.

Jordan Staal, the younger brother of the Ranger’s Marc Staal, scored to put the Pens up 1-0 in the second period. That was all Marc-Andre Fleury needed as he stopped all 26 shots he faced for his second shutout of the playoffs.

Fleury did an especially good job killing off two penalties during the final six minutes of the game. It didn’t hurt that the Rangers played the final six minutes with nearly no enthusiasm and often skated like there were 20 minutes left.

The Rangers were 0-for-6 on the power play overall. The Rangers usually controlled the puck during their power plays but they did not get a lot of shots and had a lack of any quality scoring chances. Pittsburgh’s defense also did a good job blocking shots which kept the Rangers endlessly passing looking for the perfect setup that never came.

Former Ranger Adam Hall scored on an empty net with 17 seconds left to put the Penguins up 2-0 for good. Shortly before that the Rangers had their best chance of the game. On the power play Martin Straka appeared to have gotten a puck passed Fleury for a goal, but the referee blew the whistle thinking Fleury had the puck covered before it crossed the goal line.

Nearly matching the play of Fleury was Henrik Lundqvist; who was awarded with the third star of the game. Lundqvist stopped 30 of the 31 shots he faced and often was forced to make much tougher saves than his Pittsburgh counterpart.

In the first period alone Lundqvist made four great saves on Marian Hossa to keep the Pens off the scoreboard. Of those shots at least two were of the highlight variety including a save Lundqvist made on an odd-man rush and a wide open shot from the bottom of the right face-off circle.

Jaromir Jagr has not responded well to the booing Mellon Arena has rained down upon him. While he does have a pair of assists he has had no scoring chances and just three shots. Against the Devils Jagr had eight points and averaged four shots per game.

The Rangers finally came alive after the final whistle blew when Sean Avery took offense to Fleury jabbing him in the back with his stick. Avery turned around to throw a punch but was met immediately by the Pen’s big men Georges Laraque and Hal Gill.

Penguins take the first two. The Rangers need some Garden enthusiasm. Game three Tuesday night.

This article originally appeared @ Hot Stove New York.