Tie Keeps Rangers Winless
Todd Harvey scored his second goal of the game late in the third period as the New York Rangers ended their season-opening four-game losing streak with a 3-3 tie against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night. New York's 0-3-1 start is the worst since the 1952-53 Rangers opened with the same record.
Harvey scored during
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Wayne Gretzky's pass deflected off a Pittsburgh stick to Harvey, who beat goaltender Peter Skudra. The assist was Gretzky's 2,800th career point.
Skudra came into the game at 8:54 of the first period to replace Tom Barrasso, who left with a pulled groin muscle after allowing one goal on seven shots.
Jaromir Jagr assisted on all three Pittsburgh goals and has seven points in three games.
The Rangers, who hadn't led in any of their games this season, were ahead 2-0 with 3:24 left in the second period.
Patrick Lebeau started Pittsburgh's comeback after Jan Hrdina made a nice play to send Jagr and Lebeau on a 2-on-1. Mike Richter stopped Jagr but Lebeau backhanded the rebound into the net for his first goal.
The Penguins tied the score with 1:59 left in the first period. Kevin Hatcher fired a shot off the backboards and Robert Lang beat two Rangers to the rebound and scored his second of the season.
The Penguins took their first lead with a power-play goal at 5:35 of the third. Kevin Hatcher moved up the slot and onetimed German Titov's pass over Richter's glove.
Gretzky scored his first goal of the season for the Rangers on a power play at 4:50 of the second. Gretzky grabbed a lose puck and scored to extend his point-scoring streak to four games.
Harvey scored off Adam Graves' rebound at 10:32 of the first period for New York.
The Penguins fell 385 short of selling out their home opener. The club had about 2,000 tickets remaining on Tuesday, when the club filed for protection under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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