NEW YORK — Sidney Crosby banged his stick against the glass after Henrik Lundqvist turned aside yet another golden scoring chance for the suddenly punchless Pittsburgh Penguins.

The frustration seemed to come out in force, yet Crosby maintained enough control to keep from completely losing his cool. He made contact with the glass behind the New York Rangers net, but with only a tap.

The stick was no more dangerous then as it's been during the Penguins' five-game losing streak.

Lundqvist was the latest to shut down Crosby, NHL scoring leader Evgeni Malkin, and the rest of the defending Eastern Conference champions in the Rangers' 4-0 whitewash Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

The heat is rising on the Penguins, who instead of making another push toward the Stanley Cup finals now find themselves on the outside of the playoff race halfway through the season.

"It's not easy," Crosby said. "When it's tough, a lot of people point fingers. Not people in this room, but people outside this room. So we'll leave it at that. It's easy to do that when a team is not playing well.

"In here, we're going to try to help each other, we're not going to point the finger. We're going to try to get out of this together and get ourselves back on track."

Pittsburgh is in a free-fall, dropping six of seven, and seven of nine. They have only eight goals in seven games and have gone seven without a power-play score.

After failing on eight chances against New York, the Penguins headed home in an 0-for-32 drought with the man-advantage. Crosby was held without a point for the third straight game, and Malkin has two assists in seven games.

"I don't think you ever expect not to score," Crosby said. "Was it lack of effort? No. It happens in hockey sometimes. You run into tough nights, and we're there right now. We've got to find a way to put it in.

"We didn't doubt ourselves, and we got some great chances. I think we're all confident if we get some good looks, we're going to put the puck in the net. We had those, but it didn't happen."

The Penguins hadn't gone five games without a standings point since 2006, during Crosby's rookie season. They will face the Atlanta Thrashers, who have the second fewest points in the East, at home tonight.

Pittsburgh is in 10th place and only four points ahead of the 12th-place Toronto Maple Leafs.

"It's just frustrating," forward Jordan Staal said. "We don't doubt anyone in this dressing room. We know we have the right players to win games. It's just a matter of doing the right things and finding a way."

Lundqvist made that a tough task and posted his first shutout of the season. He stopped all 27 shots, including 11 when the Rangers were short-handed. When he was beaten by a few pucks, Lundqvist was bailed out by the goal posts. It all added up to his 20th win of the season.