Rangers  3    Penguins  8

New York Rangers (13-11-1) at Pittsburgh Penguins (17-9-0), 7:30 p.m.

Sports Network | November 28, 2009

(Sports Network) - The New York Rangers will try to bounce back from a decisive loss when they visit the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight at Mellon Arena in the opener of a home-and-home series between these Atlantic Division rivals.

The Rangers and Penguins haven't played since opening their regular seasons against each other on October 2, but the clubs will meet for the second time in three days when they battle in New York on Monday.

Pittsburgh recorded a 3-2 home win over the Rangers earlier this year to post its fourth consecutive win against the Blueshirts. New York has also lost six straight and nine of its last 10 at the Igloo.

The Rangers had won two straight games, but that streak ended with Friday's blowout loss at Tampa. The Lightning rolled to a 5-1 victory over New York as Mike Smith stopped 26 shots and Kurtis Foster notched two goals for the home team.

Henrik Lundqvist started in net but was pulled after giving up four goals on 22 shots. Steve Valiquette finished the contest between the pipes and was charged with one goal on nine shots for the Rangers. Ryan Callahan scored the lone goal for New York.

It was the first game for Rangers head coach John Tortorella against Tampa Bay since being fired by the Lightning following the conclusion of the 2007-08 campaign. He spent seven seasons behind the bench for Tampa Bay and guided the team to four playoff appearances, including a Stanley Cup title in 2003-04.

"It was a group failure," said Tortorella. "Coming off a game against Florida where we played one of our better games, this was probably our worst game we played all year long."

Tortorella will go back to Lundqvist in net tonight, as the Swedish backstop is 15-10-3 with a 2.29 goals against average in his career against Pittsburgh.

The Rangers are 6-6-1 as the guest this year and are capping a three-game road trip tonight.

The Penguins will try to get back on track tonight after having a three-game winning streak halted Friday afternoon by the New York Islanders. It was also just the second loss in seven games for the defending Stanley Cup champions.

John Tavares scored the go-ahead goal with 6:12 remaining in the third period, lifting the Islanders to a 3-2 win at Nassau Coliseum.

Evgeni Malkin and Matt Cooke scored for Pittsburgh, while Brent Johnson got the start between the pipes and finished with 34 saves. It was just the fifth start of the season for Johnson, who will return to his backup role tonight with Marc-Andre Fleury set to resume his starting role.

The Pens are 8-4-0 as the host this year and have won three straight on home ice.