The Staal family factored into this 1-1 tie, as Pittsburgh Penguins center Jordan Staal scored a nice breakaway goal against the New York Rangers based slightly on the fact that his brother Marc isn’t playing this afternoon. Rather than likely having their top defenseman on the ice, Steve Eminger and Dan Girardi were hung out to dry for the Rangers during Pittsburgh’s tying goal.
In some ways, the Penguins looked like the more desperate team at home during the first period. Henrik Lundqvist was tested early and often, stopping nine out of 10 shots (he didn’t really have much of a chance to stop that Staal goal). Overall, the Penguins had 21 shot attempts, showing that they were throwing a lot of pucks toward the Rangers’ net - even if many of them were absorbed by Rangers skaters. Meanwhile, Marc-Andre Fleury made six out of seven saves, allowing Artem Anisimov to score his 18th goal of the 2010-11 season.
The Rangers will have an abbreviated power play to begin the second period, so perhaps they can get an early second period lead to win an important game. We’ll keep you updated during this NBC Game of the Week.