It was a back-and-forth battle at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday when the Penguins took on the Rangers. Both teams put on an incredible performance, but the Penguins continue to be one of the hottest, extending their win streak to six while handing the Rangers their third straight loss. Anthony Mantha and Noel Acciari led the charge for Pittsburgh, each finishing with a two-goal performance. While New York pushed back with two goals from Alexis Lafreniere and a three-point night for Vincent Trocheck, Pittsburgh’s depth proved to be too much to handle. The Penguins look to keep the momentum rolling into February, and they’ll be hosting the Ottawa Senators next. The Rangers are back in New York on Thursday, where they’ll take on the Carolina Hurricanes.

New York Rangers Lineup:

Miller – Zibanejad – Perreault
Cuylle – Trocheck – Lafreniere
Othmann – Laba – Raddysh
Brodzinski – Carrick – Rempe

Gavrikov – Schneider
Robertson – Borgen
Vaakanainen – Morrow

Quick
Martin

Pittsburgh Penguins Lineup:

Rakell – Crosby – Brazeau
Chinakhov – Novak – Malkin
McGroarty – Kindel – Mantha
Dewar – Lizotte – Acciari

Wotherspoon – Karlsson
Kulak – Shea
Solovyov – Clifton

Skinner
Silovs

Anthony Mantha got the party started when he scored early in the opening frame at 17:23, picking up his 18th goal of the season to put the Penguins in a 1-0 lead. Ben Kindel was after Scott Morrow along the left wall, and Morrow’s pass to Matt Rempe failed when Rempe spun around, and Rutger McGroarty grabbed up the puck, firing on one knee from above the left circle for Mantha to deflect the shot in past Jonathan Quick. At 13:56, Noel Acciari struck on a one-timer to make it 2-0, scoring his fifth goal of the season when he took a pass from Blake Lizotte in the left face-off circle after Connor Clifton passed it to Lizotte from the blue line.

With 7:01 on the clock in the second, Mantha extended Pittsburgh’s lead to 3-0 with a wrist shot from just outside the crease after Quick made a diving save on Rickard Rakell, who collected the rebound to make a backhand pass to Mantha for his second goal of the game. This was also Manth’s fifth goal in four games. Alexis Lafreniere put the Rangers on the board late in the middle frame with just 1:32 to go to cut it to 3-1, scoring from the right circle on a wrister under Stuart Skinner’s glove after he made a pass to Mika Zibanejad, the puck was handed over to J.T. Miller, who sent it back to Lafreniere to score on a 4-on-3 power play.

Rakell and Acciari each scored early in the third period, just 20 seconds apart. Rakell found his 10th of the season when he took a pass from Sidney Crosby on the power play, and tapped it in past Quick for the 4-1 lead at 18:41. Acciari collected his second of the game to make it 5-1 when he grabbed a loose puck near the left post before putting it in behind Quick off a missed shot from Lizotte at 18:21. At 10:48, Vincent Trocheck pulled the Rangers within 5-2 with his 12th goal of the season, going forehand to backhand on a short-handed breakaway. After some passing back and forth, Vladislav Gavrikov took a pass from Braden Schneider to cut it to 5-3 with his ninth of the season on a one-timer at 4:45. Ben Kindel struck on the empty New York net for Pittsburgh to make it 6-3 with 2:32 to go. At 1:07, Lafreniere took a pass from Trochek to chip it in past Skinner, cutting it to 6-4 before Will Cuylle scored off a rebound for his 13th of the season with just seconds remaining.

Game Notes:

– Stuart Skinner made a total of 15 saves for Pittsburgh.

– Jonathan Quick made a total of 29 saves for New York.

– Rickard Rakell recorded a goal and an assist, and both Blake Lizotte and Connor Dewar collected a pair of assists.

– Anthony Mantha extended his point streak to four games, collecting eight points (five goals, three assists).

– Noel Acciari has four points in his past two games, recording two goals and two assists.

– Alexis Lafreniere had two goals and an assist, and Vincent Trocheck picked up a goal and two assists. Vladislav Gavrikov recorded both a goal and an assist, who also extended his point streak to four games with four points (one goal, three assists).

– The Penguins are 28-14-11, and have outscored their opponents 31-15 in the past six games.

– The Rangers are 22-28-6, and have lost three straight, six of seven, and 11 of 13 (2-10-1).

– Noah Laba left the game early in the second period after sustaining an upper-body injury.

– With their game-opening goal, the Penguins have scored first for a 32nd time this season, and they tie for the third-highest total in the League. Pittsburgh has 17 wins when leading through the first period, and they trail only Colorado (21) and Tampa Bay (20).

– By assisting on Rakell’s goal to extend the Penguins’ lead to 4-1, Sidney Crosby reached 110 career points (40 goals, 70 assists) in 91 games against the New York Rangers. He now trails Bryan Trottier (113 points in 99 games) by just three points for the second-most points recorded against the Rangers since the 1967-68 expansion. Mario Lemieux remains the all-time leader in this category with 132 points in only 70 games.

– With his latest apple, Sidney Crosby has officially moved into fifth place all-time for third-period assists in NHL history. His career total now surpasses both Joe Thornton and Paul Coffey, who were tied at 368. Crosby now sets his sights on the only four players left ahead of him: Wayne Gretzky (660), Jaromir Jagr (388), Ray Bourque (388), and Ron Francis (383).

– By finding the back of the net to extend his goal streak to three games, Ben Kindel has become only the third 18-year-old in Pittsburgh Penguins history to achieve a scoring run of that length. He joins an exclusive list of franchise icons who accomplished the feat during their rookie years: Jordan Staal (recorded streaks of 5 and 3 games in 2006-07) and Crosby (recorded streaks of 5 and 4 games in 2005-06).

– The Penguins and Rangers lit up the scoreboard with a combined seven goals in the final frame. This offensive outburst ties the season high for the most goals scored by two teams in a third period, matching the mark set by the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks on November 5.

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