Pens' streak snapped in N.Y.
NEW YORK — Just 14 games into the NHL season, the New York Rangers had to strain to see the front-running Pittsburgh Penguins, who had raced 10 points ahead of them.
With the first chance to meet face to face, the gap suddenly didn’t seem so wide on the ice.
Brian Boyle scored his first goal of the season and captain Ryan Callahan added his first since returning from a broken thumb as the Rangers matched a season high in goals with a 5-1 victory over the Penguins on Wednesday night.
“You don’t focus on the other teams and where they are,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who kept the Penguins at bay in a tough first period and finished with 28 saves. “We have to focus on ourselves. As long as we take care of our business, we are going to end up in good shape.”
Pittsburgh had won four straight and defeated New York eight times in nine meetings, but Ryan McDonagh and Derek Stepan scored 1:05 apart late in the first period to put the Rangers ahead. Boyle and Callahan connected within a 2:28 span of the second to send New York to its fourth win in five games.
Derick Brassard made it 5-1 at 9:57 of the third, and Brad Richards had two assists for New York, which rebounded from a 2-1 loss to Anaheim on Monday and completed a 3-1 homestand.
The Rangers quickly headed to a flight after the game for a meeting with the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Thursday.
Kris Letang’s power-play goal pulled the Penguins to 3-1 with 5:26 left in the second, but Callahan’s fourth of the season — in his second game back in the lineup — restored the Rangers’ three-goal lead 1:04 later.
“We generated some good chances, but there is no guarantee when you do that,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “We were generating, so I don’t think there was a need to force things.”
Marc-Andre Fleury, who sat out Pittsburgh’s 3-0 win at Columbus on Saturday, stopped 20 shots.
“We weren’t good,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “We gave them opportunities. We didn’t play at all at our game and then we got disjointed in our effort. We got disjointed in our game in the second.
“That wasn’t anything close to where we need to play or want to play.”
