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Pens try to deal Rangers seventh straight loss

Feb 13, 2011 - 3:43 PM (Sports Network) - The Pittsburgh Penguins hope to find friendlier faces in the Big Apple after a rough go of it on Long Island as they take on a New York Rangers club today at Madison Square Garden that is trying to avoid its longest losing streak in over four years.

The wounded Penguins are coming off a 9-3 setback to the Islanders on Friday that saw the two teams combine for 65 penalties, 346 penalty minutes and 10 ejections.

The bad blood was stemming from a chippy 3-0 Penguins win on Feb. 2 that saw Pittsburgh goaltender Brent Johnson knock down Isles netminder Rick DiPietro with one punch late in the game. DiPietro suffered facial fractures that will sideline him for 4-to-6 weeks.

Johnson got the start on Friday and was briefly pulled after allowing six goals on 19 shots through the early portion of the second period. He returned for the third frame and gave up another goal on eight shots while fighting New York skater Michael Haley in the frame.

Forward Eric Godard jumped off Pittsburgh's bench in an attempt to protect Johnson and received an automatic 10-game suspension on Saturday. He was the only Penguins player suspended by the league as a result from the game, while two Islanders skaters received bans.

"The first half of the game was a hockey game and the second was not," said Pittsburgh head coach Dan Bylsma. "I didn't anticipate the third period looking like that."

Tyler Kennedy, Kris Letang and Jordan Staal tallied for the Penguins, who have dropped three of four on the heels of winning five straight and still trail the Flyers by three points for first place in the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division.

Eric Tangradi exited the game with concussion-like symptoms for a hobbled Penguins club that remains without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Chris Kunitz, Mark Letestu and Aaron Asham due to injury, while Matt Cooke served the second game of his four-game ban for a hit versus Columbus on Feb. 8.

Pittsburgh, which opened a four-game road trip with the loss, is likely to go with Marc-Andre Fleury tonight and he is 18-8-7 with a 2.69 goals-against average lifetime versus the Rangers.

New York is hoping to avoid its first seven-game slide since Dec. 16-29, 2006 as its losing streak hit six in a row with Friday's 3-2 defeat in Atlanta. Though still seventh overall in the East, the Rangers are just two points ahead of both the Hurricanes and Thrashers in the standings.

The Blueshirts are also struggling with key injuries, skating on Friday without Chris Drury, Ruslan Fedotenko and Alex Frolov.

Marc Staal and Brandon Dubinsky each scored for the Rangers, while Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves in a losing effort.

"There's a lot of emotions right now: really angry, disappointed and frustrated," said Lundqvist. "You just have to angle it into something positive and get energy from it. Just re-focus and get ready for the next one."

After going winless on a three-game road trip, the Rangers play their next two at home, but have lost three straight at MSG.

Though these teams have split four meetings so far this year, the Penguins have already picked up two wins in New York and have won five straight as the guest in this series while taking 10 of the past 13 meetings overall.

Lundqvist, who hadn't started New York's previous two games, is 18-13-5 with a 2.41 GAA lifetime versus the Penguins.