Five keys for the Rangers-Penguins playoff series

Photo Credit: Jim McIsaac

Photo Credit: Jim McIsaac

Photo Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke

If the Rangers-Penguins series has a familiar ring, let’s recall how the bells have tolled in the past two postseasons.

Two springs ago, the Rangers were down in a second-round, best-of-seven series, 3-1, a deficit they had never come back from in franchise history. The Penguins had finished 13 points ahead of them. But an emotional, team-wide rally after the death of Martin St. Louis’ mother propelled the Blueshirts to three straight wins.

Last April, the Rangers captured a first-round series in five games, with Henrik Lundqvist allowing just eight goals, and Carl Hagelin — now a Penguin — scoring the overtime winner in Game 5.

This year, only three points separated the teams in the regular-season standings, thanks to an incredible post-Christmas run by the Penguins that included three wins against the Rangers from Feb. 10 to March 27.

Here are five key areas to watch when the puck drops on Wednesday in CONSOL Energy Center: