Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins face-off in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Round 1 best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series live from the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.
As the series shifts to Pennsylvania, New York looks to take a 2-1 lead while Pittsburgh hopes to take advantage of home ice to swing the pendulum in its favor.
The Rangers took Game 1 by a 2-1 score, but the Penguins bounced-back with a 4-3 triumph in Game 2 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
This game can be live streamed for free by clicking here.
Sidney Crosby scored his first two goals of the series to help propel Pittsburgh in Game 2 while the Penguins also got contributions from Chris Kunitz (power play goal, two assists) and Brandon Sutter (goal, assist) in the win. Sutter had a notable all-around game on Saturday.
One thing that Pittsburgh desperately needs to improve on his discipline as the team has committed 12 penalties through the first two contests.
"[The referees] have indicated to both teams that if you're going to use the stick anywhere in the wrist area, the hand area, you're going to come down on a player's hands like that, you're going to be called," Penguins coach Mike Johnston said per NHL.com. "We have to be a lot better with our sticks. Two got up into the face of the Rangers' players."
The Rangers power play has been its Achilles heel annually and that has continued as the team has only converted on two of its 12 chances on the man-advantage.
New York will look to up its energy level in this pivotal Game 3.
"I think they probably had it consistently throughout the game," captain Ryan McDonagh told NHL.com of the Penguins' aggressiveness. "They were a lot quicker on their sticks, moving their feet on loose pucks. [It] translated to them having the puck more. You could see we spent some more time in our zone than we'd like to."
Derick Brassard scored his second goal of the season on the power play in Game 3 while Rick Nash had a tally and a helper and Derek Stepan lit the lamp and added an assist.
On the injury front, Rangers defenseman Kevin Klein (broken arm) traveled with the team, but is expected to miss his 19th straight game while Penguins blue liners Christian Ehrhoff (concussion) and Derrik Pouliot (upper-body) remain day-to-day.
In between the pipes, New York turns to Henrik Lundqvist and he has allowed five goals on 47 shots through the first two games.
Pittsburgh counters with Marc-Andre Fleury in the crease and he has had a solid series, yielding five goals and turning aside 59 shots.
It's a huge Game 3 when the puck drops on the Rangers and Penguins tonight live from the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh as part of the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs.
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