So much for firewagon hockey Tuesday night at The Igloo as the Penguins beat the Remedial Rangers 1-0. Both teams were tentative to start the game as the Rangers played like they didn’t want to lose and the Penguins played as if they didn’t want to win.

It was 44 seconds into the second period before Evgeni Malkin broke the scoreless tie by poking in the puck from the side of the crease on a dish from Ryan Whitney. Sidney Crosby also picked up an assist on Malkin’s third goal of the season that came on the powerplay.

Moments later, Fedor Tyutin dove after Jordan Staal to deny the Penguin a clean shot on his breakaway. Staal was awarded a penalty shot, the third of his young career, and he inexplicably fired off a lame shot from the hashmarks that Henrik Lundqvist had no problem stopping.

Malkin almost scored his second goal of the game when he banged one off the post with less than two minutes to play in the middle stanza. The Blueshirts woes continue to mount as they have now been outscored 8-1 in second period play this year.

The Rangers only sustained pressure came late in the third when the Penguins were called for too many men on the ice with 3:41 to play. The Blueshirts spent the entire powerplay in the Penguins zone to no avail.

St.Ranger player of the game as brought to you by rangerspress.com is Nigel Dawes for ringing one off the post in the first period. Sadly that was all the offense that the Rangers could muster in the game.

Up next for the Remedial Rangers is Martin Brodeur (3.51GAA/.865SV) and the New Jersey Devils (3-4-1). The game marks the end of a season opening nine game road trip for the Diablos as they don’t open the spanking new Prudential Center until Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.

Hopefully, it will be a case of home-sweet-home for the Remedial Rangers as Thursday’s game marks the beginning of a seven game homestand. Yeah, I’m counting the Islanders game at the tail end as a home game. The Diablos are not your father’s lunchbucket, defense first team anymore. Coach Sutter has them playing a more wide open style of game and Brodeur has looked shaky at best. You wonder if Scott Gomez is second guessing himself for crossing over the Hudson.

ST.RANGER THINGS…Shut out for third time this season…First four game losing streak since January… At 2-5-1 the Rangers have scored a league low 13 goals …After going 0-6 on the pp against Boston the Blueshirts went 0-4 against Pittsburgh…Outshot the Penguins 36-22…Sean Avery skated this morning…Rangers have played more than two hours of hockey without scoring a goal…Rangers sit last in the Atlantic Division and 14^th in the Eastern Conference.

Until next time baby Blueshirts…puck on!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.