Matchups between the Penguins and Rangers tend to bring out a bit more emotion than say, a random middle-of-January game against the Senators.
Things got a bit chippy when the Penguins beat the Rangers, 3-2, in overtime Sunday evening at PPG Paints Arena.
With the Rangers searching for the equalizer midway through the third period, Vincent Trocheck laid an open-ice hit on Evgeni Malkin in the neutral zone. Although it might not have appeared that way due to Malkin aggressively landing on his back as a result, it was a clean hit:
That was that. Malkin sprung back to his skates and, for a moment, at least appeared as if he was contemplating taking a run at Trocheck. Ultimately he decided not to and play went on.
A few moments later, as the puck was worked into the Rangers' end, an opportunity presented itself for Malkin to give Trocheck a taste of his own medicine. Trocheck made his way to the corner in support of his defenseman, but when he arrived to the puck, he fanned on it and was stuck looking down at his skates.
Malkin promptly planted him in similar fashion:
Once again, the hit was clean. But Trocheck wouldn't stand for being the last one "it" in this game of tag.
Malkin had the puck back on his stick in short order after the hit. As he cut to the middle of the ice, he made an erroneous pass right to a Rangers skater. After the puck had already left his stick, Trocheck tracked him and blasted him with a hit from behind.
The Rangers quickly transitioned on the counterattack. Once it was apparent that no call was coming for the hit, everyone in the building knew what was about to happen. Tie game:
"I thought it was a penalty, but obviously the referees didn’t," Mike Sullivan said after the game.
However enraging it might have been for the team, they didn't let it demoralize them or cause them to lose focus on the task at hand.
"The most encouraging thing from my standpoint was how the guys reacted," Sullivan continued. "We just kept playing the game. We just kept trying to compete, kept trying to play the game the right way."
The captain echoed similar sentiments.
"That’s what we gotta do," Sidney Crosby said of playing through it. "We understand what’s at stake. I think Geno did a great job just continuing to battle, fought through it, didn’t get rattled by it. It was a physical game — some big hits both ways. It had a playoff-feel. That’s something that brings out the best in us, and it did, for the most part, today."
The Penguins occasionally face some flack for their lack of "pushback" in such situations, but it's fair to assume this would have gotten out of hand if they'd let their emotions get the best of them. Really, that's exactly what the Rangers want.
"It didn’t rattle the group," Sullivan said, "we just kept playing the game."
