The Kindel-ing Moment: Rangers Rout Penguins 6-1 on Night Rookie Gets His First

The New York Rangers delivered a commanding 6-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night, but the lone goal for the home team provided a memorable moment. Rookie forward Ben Kindel tallied his highly anticipated first career NHL goal in the second period, giving the Pittsburgh faithful something to cheer about before the Rangers’ offense—led by a multi-point night from Adam Fox—took over completely to seal the blowout win.

New York Rangers Lineup:

Panarin – Zibanejad – Lafreniere
Cuylle – Miller – Sheary
Parssinen – Laba – Raddysh
Edstrom – Carrick – Rempe

Cavrikov – Fox
Soucy – Borgen
Vaakanainen – Scheider

Shesterkin
Quick

Pittsburgh Penguins Lineup:

Rakell – Crosby – Rust
Mantha – Malkin – Brazeau
Novak – Kindel – Hallander
Dewar – Lizotte – Acciari

Wotherspoon – Karlsson
Shea – Letang
Jones – Brunicke

Silovs
Jarry

Mika Zibanejad put New York ahead 1-0 at 12:20 of the opening frame for his first goal of the season, scoring a short-handed goal. Sam Carrick took a pass from Adam Fox, drove up the ice with Zibanejad on a 2-on-1, and handed it across for a wrister past Arturs Silovs from the right face-off circle.

The No. 11 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, Ben Kindel, knotted it up 1-1 for his first NHL career goal early into the second period when he picked up the puck from J.T. Miller in the neutral zone before driving up into the right face-off circle, firing a wrister glove side of Igor Shesterkin. Fox took back the lead for the Rangers off a pass from Adam Edstrom, who passed it to him from along the right wall for a wrist shot above the left circle past a screen from Carrick at 13:54. Not long after Fox’s first of the night, Will Cuylle made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 10:35 in front when a shot from Conor Sheary went in past Silovs off his skate. With 3:22 on the clock in the middle frame, Fox extended it to 4-1 on his second of the night on another power play when he shot from the point off the handle of Silovs’ stick and in off the left post.

Matt Rempe picked up his first of the season when a shot from Edstrom went in the Penguins’ net off him in the crease, pushing it to 5-1 at 14:20 of the third frame. For the 6-1 final, Taylor Raddysh put home the sixth Rangers’ goal of the night off a backhand pass from Noah Laba with 5:48 left to play.

Notes:

– Arturs Silovs made a total of 24 saves for Pittsburgh.

– Ben Kindel is the youngest Penguins player (18 years, 175 days) since Jordan Staal (18 years, 172 days on March 1, 2007) to score.

– Making his season debut, Bryan Rust had three shots on goal in 18:44 of ice time after missing the first two games of the season due to a lower-body injury.

– This was Mike Sullivan’s return to PPG Paints Arena since being hired by the Rangers on May 2. He was the Penguins’ coach for the previous 10 seasons before agreeing to part ways on April 28. …Sullivan won the Stanley Cup in his first two seasons with the Penguins. He was 409-255-89 with the most wins and games coached (753) in Pittsburgh Penguins’ history.

– Adam Fox had two goals and an assist. Sam Carrick, Adam Edstrom, and Noah Laba each collected a pair of assists.

– The Rangers have won two straight since falling to the Penguins on Tuesday, 3-0.

– Igor Shesterkin made a total of 18 saves for New York.

– New York played without Vincent Trocheck due to the upper-body injury he sustained on Thursday in a 4-0 win against the Buffalo Sabres. He is week-to-week.

– Carson Soucy left in the second period when he fell headfirst into the boards, and according to Sullivan, he’s being evaluated for an upper-body injury.

– The Rangers were 2-for-4 on the power play and held the Penguins to three shots on their four chances (0-for-4). Through three games, New York is 9-for-9 on the penalty kill.