Just like their previous two games, the Rangers entered the third period Friday night down by a goal.
This time, there would be no late magic against the Penguins at Madison Square Garden, as the Rangers, looking for their first three-game winning streak since mid-November, fell 3-2 to a Penguins team playing without the injured Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
They got a pair of late power plays in the third period but were unable to capitalize.
And while they outshot the Penguins 10-0 in the third, the Rangers failed to score.
Three goals by the Penguins in the second period were too much for the Rangers to overcome, despite Adam Fox giving them a 2-1 lead early in the period.
Philip Tomasino scored what proved to be the game-winner at 11:59 in the second, with Pittsburgh on the power play.
The Rangers took the lead at 8:31 in the first period, as Vincent Trocheck scored after Alexis Lafreniere deflected an attempted clearance by Pittsburgh defenseman Erik Karlsson.
Trocheck’s quick wrister made it 1-0.
Igor Shesterkin stopped all 10 shots that came his way in the first but was dinged in a scrum in front of the net in the latter part of the period. He briefly was checked by a trainer and stayed in the game.
The Rangers gave the lead back early in the second period thanks to some sloppy play by Matt Rempe, whose pass was intercepted and turned into a goal by Blake Lizotte at 2:25.
But they went ahead again moments later, as Fox scored at 3:39 to give them a 2-1 lead. It was Fox’s fourth goal of the season and came on an assist by Trocheck.
Pittsburgh answered with another scoring chance, but Ryan Graves couldn’t corral the puck for a point-blank shot in front of the net.
Shoddy defense by the Rangers later in the period helped result in another tie score, as Rickard Rakell scored at 9:07 off a feed from Bryan Rust.
A Will Cuylle tripping penalty led to the power-play goal by Tomasino, who beat Shesterkin with a one-timer off an assist from Rust to give Pittsburgh its first lead of the game, 3-2.
It was another painful loss for a Rangers team trying to make a late run at the playoffs, with little margin for error.
“I think our guys understand exactly where we are,” coach Peter Laviolette said before the game, with the Rangers sitting five points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and one game left at Columbus before the 4 Nations break.
“It doesn’t take much to figure it out,’’ Laviolette said. “We’ve got to win hockey games [and] we’ve got to win a lot of them. Every chance we get to get two points, grab them.”
