Rick Nash can t be stopped as Rangers stomp Penguins

PITTSBURGH — And in the blink of an eye, the Rangers two-game losing streak is now a two-game winning streak in the wake of Sunday afternoon s 5-2 victory over the Penguins that followed Friday night s 2-1 triumph in Columbus.You re not going to win every hockey game Jaromir Jagr Jersey, but we wanted to grab hold of it as quickly as possible and put an end to it, said Derek Stepan, who scored twice. You want to make sure you don t allow it to become a snowball effect.Straight through the lineup, we knew it was important to have a good effort in Columbus and here, as well, added Stepan, who recorded four points (2 goals, 2 assists) in the two games after missing Thursday s shutout defeat in Boston with an upper-body injury. The second half last year, we were able to find belief and a flow to our game.That s what it was like this weekend.Rick Nash buried a two-on-one 26 seconds into the match, sailing down the left side to beat Marc-Andre Fleury after picking up a wayward Brandon Sutter offensive zone feed that missed Kris Letang at the right boards. Derick Brassard made it 2-0 from the slot at 6:08.After Sidney Crosby scored only his second goal against the Rangers in the clubs last 18 regular-season meetings off a back-door power-play feed at 15:08 of the first, Nash got another one when his wrist shot while backpedaling from 40 feet away on the left side was inadvertently deflected in by Penguins defenseman Rob Scuderi at 2:39 of the second.When Stepan scored on the power play at 5:14 for a 4-1 lead, that chased Fleury and essentially sealed it against a disconnected and negligent Pittsburgh team, against which the Blueshirts finished the season series 3-0-1 Ryan McDonagh Jersey.I think it s fun to play against the best players, Henrik Lundqvist said. We have a lot of respect for them, but we definitely want to beat them.We respect their skill. We played a smart game and made good decisions with the puck.Well, maybe it wasn t so smart to take three penalties in a span of 11:33 within the game s opening 14:25, but the Blueshirts were on their toes throughout the afternoon and were able to create time and space for their own skill players.The victory propelled the Rangers (15-3 in the last 18) into third place in the Metropolitan Division — tied in points with the Capitals but with two games in hand — and just two points behind the Penguins Lee Stempniak Jersey, who have played one more game than the Blueshirts.The Rangers, five points behind the division-leading Islanders with a pair of games in hand Carl Hagelin Jersey, have one more game remaining before the All-Star break, Tuesday at the Garden against the 23rd-overall Senators.You try to evaluate yourself after every game and focus on the next game, Henrik Lundqvist said. We re going to be playing a team that s desperate and needs points.When you win, you want to keep the feeling in the room. It s starting to build again.Prior to the match, coach Alain Vigneault said the team needed a better game from the Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi pair than the tandem displayed in Columbus on Friday. Girardi was a Corsi even-strength minus-20 (9/29) while McDonagh was minus-13 (11/24).I know it wasn t our best, but it s hard to play in the zone against such a hard forechecking team, Girardi said after a much improved performance from the pair. Mac and I knew that it wasn t our best and that we needed to be better.Nobody needs to tell us that.J.T. Miller, scratched on Friday, returned to the lineup in place of Tanner Glass, described by Vigneault as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.Rick Nash left the ice as the NHL s leading goal-scorer with 28 in 43 games. Vic Hadfield is the fastest Ranger in history to reach 28, No. 11 (yes, there were No. 11s before Mark Messier, and captains, too, as was Hadfield) getting there in Game 39 of the 1971-72 season, during which he scored 50.