Rangers net 4 late goals to drop Pens
PITTSBURGH — Just when the New York Rangers welcomed back one important player, another went down with an injury.
Erik Christensen and Alex Frolov scored 15 seconds apart to spark a four-goal third period, and the Rangers rallied for a 4-1 victory over the Penguin Wednesday night, their third win in four games and ninth in 13.
New York captain Chris Drury played in only his second game this season due to a broken finger, but teammate Ryan Callahan is expected to be out six weeks after breaking his left hand.
Callahan was injured when he blocked a shot in the first period by Penguins defenseman Kris Letang.
“I’m not going to sit here and pretend. That’s a big loss to us in Callahan,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said of his second-leading scorer, who will be evaluated today in New York.
Sidney Crosby extended his point streak to a career-high 20 games when he assisted on Evgeni Malkin’s first-period goal, but the Penguins lost for the second straight night after winning 12 in a row.
Christensen tied it with 9:50 to play, while New York was on the power play, and Frolov gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead by burying his own rebound at 10:25.
Artem Anisimov and Brian Boyle scored 34 seconds apart less than five minutes later to ice the Rangers’ first win in regulation in Pittsburgh since Jan. 19, 2006 — a span of 16 games.
“It’s a great win in a lot of ways,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who made 27 saves. “I think we won because we stuck to the system. We didn’t start taking chances. We believed we could come back in this game, and once we got the first one, we kept going. It was a great team effort.”
The Penguins were 9-0-2 against the Rangers in the past 11 overall, but lost in overtime on Callahan’s goal in the team’s previous meeting.
Crosby extended this season’s longest scoring streak when he fed Malkin during a give-and-go with 13 seconds left in the first.
Making his first start since Nov. 27, Pittsburgh backup goalie Brent Johnson was in line for his second shutout of the season until he was beaten by a wrist shot by Christensen.
