Penguins Shut Out Rangers in Season Opener Behind Silovs’ Strong Performance

NEW YORK — The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the New York Rangers 3-0 in their season opener at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, marking a challenging debut for Rangers’ head coach Mike Sullivan.

Penguins goaltender Ivan Silovs turned in an impressive performance, making 25 saves for his first NHL shutout. Silovs, acquired from the Vancouver Canucks this past July, expressed his enthusiasm about being on a new team. “It felt great to be on a new team,” he said. “I think we have pretty good chemistry with the guys already and it’s so nice to play and it’s even better to win on the road.”

Justin Brazeau led the Penguins with two goals and two assists, contributing significantly to the victory in head coach Dan Muse‘s debut as NHL coach. Muse, who transitioned from assistant with the Rangers, replaced Sullivan, who coached the Penguins for a decade before moving to New York in May.

<p“It’s a huge honor, it really is,” Muse said. “You always want to start things off on the right foot and I thought we got contributions from everybody today.”

Despite a promising start, the Rangers struggled to capitalize on opportunities and were shut out in their opener for the first time since the 2020-21 season. Sullivan pointed out the team’s need for improvement, saying, “I thought we had moments in the game where we were playing the game that we envisioned, but it’s not nearly consistently enough.”

Brazeau opened the scoring at 19:28 of the first period after receiving a pass from Evgeni Malkin. He later sealed the win with two empty-net goals. The Rangers were 0-for-2 on the power play and registered only five shots in the third period.

Silovs became just the second goalie in Penguins history to achieve a shutout in his debut, joining former goalie Maxime Legace. Additionally, Penguins stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang made history by becoming the first trio of teammates in North American pro sports to reach 20 seasons together.