Penguins are hot, Rangers are not ahead of meeting

The Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers are heading in opposite directions going into their game on Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh.

The Penguins have won five in a row and six of their last seven and are in a playoff spot, while the Rangers, who have lost five of the past six games and 10 of 12, have the worst record in the Eastern Conference.

Pittsburgh's latest triumph was a 6-2 home victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night.

Anthony Mantha had a goal and two assists, Connor Dewar scored twice and Ben Kindel and defenseman Ryan Shea each added a goal and a helper.

Kindel, an 18-year-old rookie, has three goals in the last two games.

"You want those contributions from throughout (the lineup)," Penguins coach Dan Muse said. "I think guys have shown that. I think guys have found a way to make good contributions at both ends. We want to be seeing that. It was really good there tonight."

Pittsburgh scored six straight goals, four in the second period, after falling behind 1-0 in the middle of the first.

Bryan Rust missed the first of three games due to suspension following his check to the head of the Vancouver Canucks' Brock Boeser in a 3-2 win on Sunday.

The Penguins recalled forward Rutger McGroarty on Thursday from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. He has two goals and an assist in 17 games with Pittsburgh.

They also placed defenseman Jack St. Ivany on injured reserve after he underwent surgery on his left hand, which he injured on Sunday against the Canucks.

Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang did not practice on Friday. The team said their status will be updated Saturday.

The Rangers are coming off successive losses to the archrival New York Islanders in back-to-back games.

The Rangers lost 5-2 in Elmont, N.Y., on Wednesday and 2-1 at home on Thursday night.

Star winger Artemi Panarin sat out of both games because of roster management. The pending unrestricted free agent is expected to be traded.

"I thought for the most part the team competed pretty hard," Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said after Thursday's loss. "I thought we generated a fair amount of scoring chances. The goals are hard to come by now. I thought (Mika Zibanejad's) line in particular had a number of Grade-A looks. Give (Islanders goalie Ilya) Sorokin credit, I thought he made some timely saves for them. There's a fine line between winning and losing. I thought we played well enough to win."

Zibanejad scored the only Rangers goal and Jonathan Quick made 19 saves.

"We had enough chances to score a few more and get a better result, but that wasn't the case," Zibanejad said. "As positive as we try to be, or try to look for the positives, it's hard to be when you lose another game."

The goal was Zibanejad's 273rd as a Ranger, moving him past Andy Bathgate and into fifth all-time in franchise history. Zibanejad's 337 career goals rank seventh all-time among Swedish players.

--Field Level Media