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Nash, Stepan lead Rangers past Penguins

Jan 18, 2015 - 11:38 PM Pittsburgh, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Rick Nash and Derek Stepan each scored twice as the New York Rangers downed the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2, on Sunday.

Derick Brassard had a goal and an assist, while Chris Kreider and Martin St. Louis each had two helpers for the Rangers, who have won their past two games. Henrik Lundqvist allowed two goals on 34 shots.

"I'm real pleased with how we played this afternoon," said New York head coach Alain Vigneault. "I thought we played a real solid game on both ends of the ice tonight."

David Perron had a goal and an assist and Sidney Crosby also scored for the Penguins, who have lost their past two games.

"When you play like that you don't give yourself a good chance of winning," said Crosby. "We have to come out with better efforts against teams like this, because they were real motivated to play this game and we weren't."

Marc-Andre Fleury allowed four goals on 17 shots and was pulled in the second period for Thomas Greiss, who stopped 13-of-14 shots the rest of the way.

It took all of 26 seconds for the Rangers to get on the board, as Kris Letang misplayed a puck at the right point in the New York end, and Nash went the other way on a 2-on-1. Skating down the left wing, Nash opted to shoot and beat Fleury to the short side for a 1-0 advantage.

Just under six minutes later, New York took a 2-0 lead as a left circle faceoff win saw Brassard eventually get the puck at the right point where he slapped it home for his 12th of the season.

Skating on the power play, the Pens got one back as Crosby shot home a Perron feed at 15:08 of the first for his 15th goal of the season.

New York, though, got the goal back at 2:39 of the second when a left circle faceoff win saw Nash throw the puck on net where it tipped off the stick of Rob Scuderi and in.

It was a 4-1 game just three minutes later as St. Louis sent a pass from the right circle to the top of the left circle where Stepan beat Fleury with a heavy wrister for a power-play goal.

Fleury was pulled from the net after the goal in favor of Greiss.

The Pens made it a two-goal game at 4:16 of the third as Perron split the defense down the middle and saw the puck slide in between the pads of Lundqvist as he was being pulled down.

Stepan, though, gave his team the three-goal edge back two minutes later when he finished off a turnover in the neutral zone with a wrister into the left corner for his eighth goal of the year.

Game Notes

New York hosts Ottawa on Tuesday ... Pittsburgh plays in Philadelphia on Tuesday ... The Rangers posted a 3-0-1 mark against the Penguins this season ... Pittsburgh was 1-for-3 on the power play, while New York was 1-for-6 ... After the game, the Rangers announced that they've agreed to terms on a contract extension with defenseman Marc Staal.