PENGUINS

• Who: Penguins (23-26-9) vs. Rangers (27-25-4)
• What: NHL regular season, Game 59
• When: 3:52 p.m.
• Where: PPG Paints Arena
• Goaltenders: Joel Blomqvist (3-8, .893 SV%) vs. Igor Shesterkin (18-20-2, .903 SV%).
• TV: TNT
• Radio: Penguins Radio Network
• Streaming: truTV, MAX
• Media notes: Penguins | Rangers

► FOLLOW ALONG

• Ballgame.

• GOAL. Miller into the empty net with 6.5 left.

• Point shot gets through to the net, but Bunting can't collect.

• Heavy flurry around Shesterkin, but it's Borgen covering the puck outside the crease. Not sure how that's legal, but no one seems to be arguing it. 55.1 left. Timeout Pittsburgh.

• Finally off at 1:43.

• Two minutes. He's still in.

• Three minutes. He's still in.

• Four minutes left. Could've pulled the goaltender with the opening faceoff.

• GOAL. Well, they gave up a shot. New York takes the lead. This is (almost) unbelievable. The franchise's goaltending is just in ruins. Fox with the shot. And the overall shots currently favor Pittsburgh, 32-14. Assists: Smith, Zibanejad. Time: 11:26, third period. Rangers, 4-3

New York goal!

Scored by Adam Fox with 08:34 remaining in the 3rd period.

Assisted by Reilly Smith and Mika Zibanejad.

Pittsburgh: 3
New York: 4#NYRvsPIT #LetsGoPens #NYR pic.twitter.com/79gMhKgqLj

— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) February 23, 2025

• Halfway through the third. The Penguins literally can't give up a scoring chance. That's how bad this has gotten. They can't give up a shot.

• The Rangers have scored on one-third of their past nine shots.

• Here I go again, but this is a joke. This goaltending's a joke. This can't happen at the NHL level to any organization. There have to be answers.

• GOAL. Good God. Vesey whips a shot over the glove of Blomqvist. Assists: Trocheck, Lindgren. Time: 4:21, third period. Tie, 3-3 

• GOAL. Shea does it again. From zero goals on the season to two. Chipped it from the boards. Redirected off a Rangers defender. Wow. Assists: Sid, Hayes. Time: 3:31, third period. Penguins, 3-2

• GOAL. Shea's first of the season ties the game at 2-2. Comes after Cuylle was going after Crosby. Acciari wanted to fight and Cuylle wanted no part of it. Assists: Malkin, Karlsson. Time: :57, third period. Tie, 2-2

• Pathetic. That's absolutely pathetic.

• GOAL. New York. Of course. And I'm sorry, but that's pathetic. Joseph failed on a routine keep, and the Penguins, up 30-7 in shots, give up another high-glove shot on the first real chance the opponent's had in an hour. That's pathetic. Time: 17:00, second period. Assists: Fox, Panarin. Rangers, 2-1

• Rangers finally get their first shot of the period with under five minutes left. Again, a dominant effort by the Penguins in this period, but nothing to show for it. 

• Just two shots on the man advantage. Both came in the latter seconds of the power play. 

• Cuylle heading to the box for interference. Penguins back to the power play with 7:34 to go in the second. 

• The shot advantage is now a dominant 26-5 with around eight minutes left in the second period. 

• Beauty of a diving play by Rakell to keep the puck in the attacking zone and over to Beauvillier. Just can't finish. 

• Grzelcyk (upper-body injury) will not return to today's game, the team just announced. 

• Tomasino just had a quality chance from just outside of the left circle. Shot went wide right. Best opportunity they had with the man advantage. 

• Penguins with an 18-5 advantage in shots. 

• Couple of really solid scoring chances here for the Penguins. One on a pass from Malkin to Heinen that the latter couldn't finish and another in close by Crosby. Penguins now heading to the power play on a penalty to Vaakanainen. Holding call. 

• Second period underway.

• No Grzelcyk when the team emerges.

• End period. The Penguins lead in shots, 12-5, but goaltending's still hurting them.

• GOAL. Cuylle right under Blomqvist's glove from the left dot. Not great. Time: 19:17, first period. Tie, 1-1

• Letang trips Rempe, he can't keep his skates, and then Letang puts a shoulder into him to start a small skirmish. In New York, they think this guy's the X factor.

• Smith stopped on a short-handed breakaway. 

• So, of course, the NHL's review team looks at it and reduces it to a minor.

• Grzelcyk's down on all fours behind the Pittsburgh net, and it doesn't look good. Rammed there by Rempe the dirtbag for a five-minute major. Awful hit. Grzelcyk down the tunnel. 

• GOAL: Geno's 10th. Right after pretty much everyone in the place had bemoaned his passing up a great shooting opportunity, he goes to the net and redirects a Glass whiff. Other assist: Heinen. Time: 12:53, first period. Penguins, 1-0

• Halfway through the period, the Penguins have four shots to the Rangers' two. But again, nice pace.

• Letang takes a ricocheted puck to the face. Seems OK. Immediate whistle draws complaints from a couple Rangers, Zibanejad and Miller. Really, just shut up. 

• The Rangers really have only their top line going.

• Beauvillier with an inspired rush/feed for Sid, but Sid just couldn't corral it.

• The place again's completely packed.

• Healthy early pace for the home team. Wasn't necessarily anticipating that.

• Faceoff: Penguins vs. Rangers, Sid vs. Miller, 3:52 p.m.

• Peter Laviolette's combos minus Kreider: 

Artemi Panarin - J.T. Miller - Mika Zibanejad
Will Cuylle - Vincent Trocheck - Alexis Lefreniere
Arthur Kaliyev - Sam Carrick - Reilly Smith
Jimmy Vesey - Jonny Brodzinski - Matt Rempe

Ryan Lindgren - Adam Fox
K'Andre Miller - Will Borgen
Urho Vaakanainen - Braden Schneider

• The Rangers just announced Chris Kreider as a very late scratch with an upper-body injury.

• Mike Sullivan's combos today: 

Anthony Beauvillier-Sidney Crosby-Rickard Rakell
Danton Heinen-Evgeni Malkin-Cody Glass
Michael Bunting-Kevin Hayes-Phil Tomasino
Matt Nieto-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari

P.O. Joseph-Kris Letang
Matt Grzelcyk-Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves-Ryan Shea

That makes Vincent Desharnais a scratch for the first time, presuming he's healthy. Shea enters.