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No goals, no problem for Crosby, Penguins in Game 2

New York Rangers  v Pittsburgh Penguins - Game Two

PITTSBURGH, PA - MAY 4: Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins warms up before Game Two of the Second Round of the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs against the New York Rangers on May 4, 2014 at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

Jamie Sabau

PITTSBURGH -- It’s easy to look at Sidney Crosby’s playoff statistics and see he has zero goals and think he’s having a bad postseason.

As he showed in Game 2, sometimes the basic stats don’t tell the whole story.

The Penguins’ 3-0 win against the New York Rangers saw Crosby lead the team with six shots on goal. On two occasions it took remarkable saves from Henrik Lundqvist to keep him from getting off the goal-scoring schneid.

Goals or not, he was the talk of the town following the game.

“I thought, almost to a man, our game was at another level tonight,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “The 50-50 battles we alluded to, Sid was every bit a leader in that regard for our team.

“I think we’re looking for things on the offensive side of things on the stat sheet, but there was, on both sides, where it didn’t show up with an assist or a goal tonight. He was all around it on both ends of the rink for us and right up to the shot block at the end.”

Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz joined Crosby on the Penguins’ top line in Game 2. They were responsible for the game’s first goal from Kris Letang and Malkin sealed the deal with an empty-net goal in the third.

“I really liked Malkin, Crosby, and Kunitz tonight,” Bylsma said. “I thought they were every bit as hard to handle and they were, both sides of the puck, hard to play against and right up to the end, Geno makes that great play to get us the empty net goal.”

While the Penguins star players all had big games, it was Crosby who dazzled all night long.

A move he made to get around Ryan McDonagh in the first period to generate a scoring opportunity made the sellout crowd at CONSOL Energy Center roar. After a less-than stellar effort in Game 1, it looked like Sid the Kid was back.

“To see Sid play like that tonight was really inspiring for everybody in our dressing room,” Letang said. “He was really dangerous. He was making plays, he was in front of the net, he was shooting the puck like he can... It was great to see.”

If the Crosby we saw in Game 2 is what we see from him the rest of the way, the Rangers will need to hope Lundqvist can match him and that their defense can find some way to slow him down.

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