-The red Civic Arena roof:

-The ice:

-The rink:

-Ulf Samuelsson:

-Kevin Stevens, with a 1990 All-Star Game patch:

-Alex ei Kovalev:

-Jean Pronovost:

-Ken Wregget:

-The Rangers have a few fans on hand. Brian Leetch:

-This is slightly obscure. Pavel Bure Rangers:

-Marian Gaborik:

-Henrik Lundqvist:

-Slight jersey foul here. Patrick Kane Team USA:

SECOND PERIOD

18:57: After a turnover by the Rangers in their own zone, Michalek grips and  a wrister from the slot. Lundqvist says no.

18:34: Malkin grips and rips a wrister from the righ half wall off the near post.

18:25: Neal whips a wrister from the left circle. Lundqvist fends it off.

18:18: Michalek whips a wrister from the top o the slot. Ludnqvist fights it off. Marc Staal is called for high sticking Kunitz. Malkin, Kunitz, Neal, Steve Sullivan and Niskanen take the ice.

17:49: Niskanen tees up a slapper from above the right circle. Lundqvist gloves it.

16:51: Brutal. Just brutal. Callahan pushes the puck up the right wing on a SHORTHANDED three-one one againNiskanen. Niskanen slides down attempt a block. He slides out of the play. Callahan is patient and taps a pass to Dubinsky to the left of the crease. Dubinsky chops in the pass by Fleury's right leg for the easy goal. That. Was. Ugly. Callahan gets the only assist. Just brutal. Rangers 2-1.

16:18: The Penguins' power play comes to an end. What a waste of two minutes.

15:10: Brandon Prust runs over Lovejoy behind the Penguins' net.

14:32: Orpik blasts Stralman in the left wing corner of the Rangers' zone.

13:18: Neal tries to chip and chase the puck from the neutral zone. McDonagh holds him up. No call.

12:12: McDonagh chips a wrister from the left circle. Dubinsky is in front and re-directs it on net. Fleury fights it off.

12:32: Gaborik whips a wrister from the slot. Michalek blocks it.

11:54: Malkin races up the right wing against Girardi and snaps off a wrister. Girardi goes stick on puck and deflects the shot wide to the far side.

11:44: Girardi takes a pass in the slot and snaps off a wrister. Fleury fight sit off with his right arm.

11:20: Dubinsky coasts up the right wing on a two-on-one with Callahan against Orpik. Dubinsky elects to shoot from the right circle but misses the net.

9:43: Richard Park taps a pass from the left circle to the slot. Kennedy is there but a defender lifts his stick and prevents a shot. Great play.

8:19: Engelland chops a slapper from the right point. Lundqvist fights it off despite having Colin McDonald and the great Joe Vitale crashing in.

8:08: Gaborik weaves his way through the defense and whips a weak wrister on net. Fleury kicks it to the left corner.

7:39: WOW! Neal races up the left wing on a two-on-two with Kunitz. Neal rips a wrister which Lundqvist kicks it out. McDonagh slides out of the play and leaves a big rebound for Kunitz. Kunitz jumps on it and guns a wrister. Lundqvist makes a glove save. What a save.

7:18: Dupuis has a chance in tight denied by Lundqvist.

7:09: Attendance is announced as 18,590. It is the team's 228th consecutive sellout.

6:36: McDonagh booms a slapper from the left point. Fleury kicks it out.

6:23: Neal chugs up the right wing and chips a wrister on net from the right circle. Lundqvist gloves it.

5:10: Dupuis whips a wrister from the left wing. Michael Del Zotto goes stick on puck and blocks it.

3:57: Neal chucks a wrister from the right half wall. Lundqvist kick sit out with his right foot.

3:26: Anisimov gains the offensive zone and throws a wrister on net from the slot. It clinks off the cross bar.

0:41: Boyle chucks a wrister from the slot. Fleury boots it out.

0:00: End of period. As the horn blows, Richards and Neal, linemates in Dallas, exchange shoves. Rangers 2, Penguins 1.

SECOND INTERMISSION

-That was kind of the opposite of the first period. The Penguins started out strong, but Rangers dominated the final 17 mintues or so of it.

-Kunitz-Malkin-Neal need to do something. Period.

-Lundqvist is a a player.

-Michalek has had a strong game offensively. He has not been hesitant to shoot the puck.

-The Penguins have a 24-15 lead in shots.

-Dupuis leads the game with five shots.

-Dubinsky leads the Rangers with three.

-Girardi leads the game with 18:56 of ice time.

-Orpik leads the Penguins with 15:33.

-The Rangers controll faceoffs, 26-18 (59 percent).

-Boyle is 9 for 12 (73 percent).

-Malkin is 8 for 14 (57 percent).

-Girardi and McDonagh each lead the game with three blocked shots.

-None of the Penguins has more than one.\

THIRD PERIOD

18:40: Wow. What. Was. That. Martin fumpls a ppuck at the left point of the offensive zone. Gaborik blows right by him in pursuit. The puck slides down to the right circle of the Penguins zone. Fleury tries to play it to Gaborik in the the slot but whiffs on the follow through. Gaborik recovers and hurries a backhander off the right post. As Fleury scrambles back to the crease and Michalek drops to his knees, Stepan follows up on the rebound and chucks it into the open net. Put that on Fleury and Martin. The goal is unassisted. Fleury and Martin could make a case for one. Rangers 3-1.

16:19: Cooke chops a one-timer from the left point. Lundqvist fights it off despite traffic. Staal, Dupuis and Cooke all have a shot at the rebound but no dice.

16:16: Off a faceoff win in the left circle, Lovejoy chucks a wrister on net. Lundqvist gloves it.

14:21: Neal snaps off a wrister from the slot to the right of the cage.

14:10: Kennedy and Fedotenko hustle after a puck behidn the cage. Kennedy gets hooked up and takes a tumble. No call.

13:25: Park heads to the dressing room with a towel over his right eye. He appeared to take an punch from Stu Bickel in the right wing corner of the Rangers' zone.

12:31: Jordan Staal has a shot in the slot blocked by Richards.

11:38: Malkin gallops through the slot against a few defenders and chips alittle shot on net. Lundqvist eats it up.

11:01: It's goal. Or is it? Neal takes a pass on right wing, cuts to the slot buy a diving Girardi and snaps off  a wrister to the far side by the glove of Lundqvist. The Penguins celebrate and the "Woo-Hoo!" song plays but officials wave the goal off. Kunitz made contact with Lundqvist's glove in the crease. Fans boo but it's a legit call. No goal.

10:19: As Kennedy lifts the puck up and actually kind of kicks it under into, a big scrum breaks out behidn the net. Vitale and Marc Staal are in the middle of it. A few punches are exchanged. Staal is sent off for roughing. This is pretty much do or die fo rhte Penguins. Kunitz, Neal, Malkin, Niskanen and Sullivan take the ice.

8:52: Boyle lifts Jordan Staal's stick in the left circle. Giradi takes the puck and clears it.

8:19: Marc Staal's minor is killed. A pretty weak effort by the Penguins.

7:33: Marc Staal is rattled on a hit by Cooke near the right wing corner of the Penguins' zone.

6:43: Park lifts a wrister from the right circle. Lundqvist fights it off. Park recovers a backhand and taps a backhanded feed to Martin in the slot. Martin's wrister is blocked.

4:52:  Michalek chucks a wrister from the right point off the near post.

4:45: Rupp runs into Jordan Staal in the right circle. It looked like he kneed Staal in the back of the left leg. Staal goes down like a ton of bricks. You almost wonder if that's a charlie horse. Cooke gives Rupp some grief. A few shoves are exchanged. Rupp is sent off for kneeing. Staal heads to the dressing room while being held up by a few teammates. Ouch. Big chance here for the Penguins. Neal, Malkin, Kunitz, Sullivan and Niskanen take the ice.

4:35: Malkin taps a pass to Sullivan on the right wing. Sullivan whips it on net. Lundqvist gloves it falling back. Dubinsky gives Kunitz a shove for jabbing Lundqvist.

4:22: And the Penguins lose their discipline. Kunitz hooks up McDonagh inte slot. We'll have 1:38 of four on four.

3:42: McDonagh strong night contines. He takes a puck int he neutral zon on the left wing, cuts through the defense, gains the offensive zone and flings a backhander on net. Fleury gloves it.

3:12: Callahan rhips a wrister on net from the left circle. Fleury eats it up.

3:02: Martin chips a backhander from the right wing to the crease. Lundqvist kicks it out.

2:39: Neal chucks a low wrister on net from the left circle. Lundqvist kicks it out.

2:45: The Rupp minor is killed. The Rangers will have 22 seconds o fpower play time.

1:57: Gaborik deals a pass from the left wing to the front of the crease. Callahan is there but Fleury pokes it away.

1:53: Richards chops a slapper which Fleury kicks out.

1:32: Fleury is pulled for an extra attacker.

1:10: With a neutral zone faceoff, Fleury reutrns to the net.

1:03: Fleury heads back to the bench.

0:42: Malkin makes a pretty brutal turnover to Stepan in his own crease. Malkin blocks Stepan shot.

0:30: The Penguins call a time out to get organized.

0:22: Niskanen booms a slapper from the right point. Fedotenko blocks it.

0:07: McDonagh flings the puck out of play. Delay of game. Two minutes. Kunitz, Malkin, Neal, Niskanen, Dupuis and Sullivan take the ice.

0:00: End of game. Rangers 3, Penguins 1.

POSTGAME

-First thing first. Dan Bylsma provided no update on Jordan Staal after the game.

-Of the collision, Rupp said: "I’m in a position, I’m turning, got my legs out, wide base. He’s coming by, I’m trying to get a piece of him. I don’t move my knee to get a contact. I understand the call. I haven’t seen the replay. I don’t know if he’s not hurt if that’s the call. It’s one of those things, I’m (6-foot-5), he’s (6-foot-4), we’ve got long legs and sometimes those things happen. I hope he’s alright."

-The hit:

-The more and more the Penguins play without Kris Letang, the more and more you realize how valueable he is. It's not a coincidence they haven't been all that sharp since he left the lineup. Even when he played poorly in the second half of last season, he still ate up minutes in all sorts of situations and that made life easier on the other defensemen. When you combine Letang's current injury with the various ailments Brooks Orpik, Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek have had to endure, it just compounds the problem.

-That No. 87 guy is pretty key too.

-Martin and Michalek were re-united again. We're willing to give Martin a break since he was out of the lineup due to a "lower-body" injury, but his fumble of the puck at the start of the third period lead to the sloppy goal by Stepan. That was a back breaker.

-Martin and Michalek were outstanding last year a shutdown pairing. This year, the results have been mixed.

-Right now, New York's Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh are what Martin and Michalek were last year. They pretty much clamped down on the Penguins' top line and really limited the looks they had at the net.

-Lundqvist was outstanding. He gave up a bad goal and just settled down after that. Not too many goaltenders can do that. Lundqvist did. That's why he's an elite goaltender.

-His counterpart was shaky in contrast. Marc-Andre Fleury gave up a bad rebound late in the first period which led to the goal by Brad Richards. And his abysmal puckhandling error led to the third goal by Stepan. There aren't many  nights were you could blame Fleury for a loss this season. Tonight is one of them.

-The Penguins top line of Chris Kunitz, Evgeni Malkin and James Neal needed to contribute something. Granted, they had a potential second goal called back, but they need to carry this team right now.

-Regarding that would-be goal by Neal, that was the right call. Kunitz made contact with Lundqvist. It wasn't major contact, but it was contact regardless. It limited Lundqvist's chances to make a save. Now if you want to argue that the NHL doesn't enforce that rule significantly, we'll get in line for that arguement, but by the letter of the law, that was a legit call.

-Why is Steve Sullivan on the third line?

-The Penguins led in shots, 38-24.

-Pascal Dupuis and Neal each led the game with six.

-McDonagh and Brandon Dubinsky led the Rangers with three.

-Girardi led the game with 28:00 of ice time.

-Malkin led the Penguins with 23:33.

-The Rangers led in faceoffs, 40-25 (62 percent).

-Richards was 18 for 23 (78 percent).

-Malkin was 13 for 25 (52 percent).

-Girardi and McDonagh each led the game with four blocked shots.

-Lovejoy and Martin each led the Penguins with two.

-Dan Bylsma is still stuck in second place in career wins for the franchise with Michel Therrien at 135.

-The Penguins have now suffered three losses in their blue "Frankenstein" mish-mash jerseys. All three have been to red, white and blue teams; The Capitals (1-1-11), the Canadiens (3-12-11) and the Rangers (tonight). Someone put the Blue Jackets on alert.

-Game summary.

-Event summary.