The New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins are playing on the NHL playoffs schedule on the NBC Sports Network and NBCSN Live Extra website streaming Monday night and the Game 3 matchup is from CONSOL Energy Center and has the series tied 1-1 after Sidney Crosby helped tie things up and now Rick Nash and Henrik Lundqvist will try and take the advantage back in the first round.
The series is now tied 1-1 after the Rangers lost to the Penguins on Saturday night and as the number one seed, they need to bounce back to get things to 2-1. The Rangers won game 1 and played very well, but they gave up penalties in the second game and now they have pressure to get things going again. The team plays again on Wednesday for Game 4 and they will not want to have the danger of going down 3-1 in the series.
The Rangers have been the best in the NHL for a stretch and they ended with the best record in the league and now they are trying to avoid a major upset. This is as good of a chance for the team to win the Cup as they have had in two decades and they cannot squander the home ice that they have throughout. The team now needs to win on the road to get that done and after the way they have played this season, they can get it done.
The Rangers came into the playoffs after ranking third in goals and goals allowed per game and now they need to ensure that they get things back on track in this matchup. The team had a strong penalty kill during the season, but the Pens were able to beat it on Saturday night. The Rangers need more form players like Rick Nash and Derick Brassard and while they have both been scoring, the two also are key to the Rangers front line offense and they should be more involved on Monday for Game 3.
The Penguins came into the playoffs after ranking 19th in the league in scoring and they snuck in after making it in as the eighth team. The Pens come in third in penalty kill and they have a top 10 power play and those advantages on special teams could be the difference in this series. In the first game Marc-Andre Fluey played very well and he is the main reason why that matchup stayed close. The Rangers played Crosby and Evgeni Malkin very well in game 1, but Crosby scored two goals in Game 2 and they will have to find a way to shut him down again.
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