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PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Dont worry, Kris Letang insists. The heat is coming. Sure, the Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman admits the New York Rangers dont invite quite the same animosity inside his teams locker room as the Philadelphia Flyers. The Rangers ended any shot of that tantalizing matchup when they beat the Flyers in seven games to set up a showdown with Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference semifinals starting Friday. That doesnt mean Letang expects the next two weeks to be devoid of drama. Far from it. "Im pretty sure the intensity will get really high at one point when we start," Letang said. "The emotion is always going to be part of the game and were going to have to control it the best we can." Its an internal battle the Penguins won during a taut first-round series against Columbus. Expected to send the inexperienced Blue Jackets home without much effort, Pittsburgh needed six trying games to advance. The way the Penguins figure it, thats a good thing. Forced to respond to adversity, they played what coach Dan Bylsma called their best 120 minutes this season to avoid the upset. "We keep coming and we keep coming, playing forward and playing in the offensive zone and grinding teams down with that play with that speed and quickness," Bylsma said. "Games 5 and 6 were our best at playing that way." The Penguins will need to do it four more times if they want to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight year. They split their four regular-season meetings with New York, all of them coming before the Olympic break. The Rangers hardly look like the team that was still struggling to find an identity when they last faced Pittsburgh in early February. Pittsburgh is no longer the patched-together unit that cruised to the Metropolitan Division title despite having stars Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Paul Martin and James Neal miss large chunks of the season due to injury. The Penguins are healthy. New York is hot. Five things to look for heading into Game 1. SLUMPING STARS: Pittsburgh captain and likely NHL MVP Sidney Crosby hasnt scored a goal in his past 10 playoff games. New York forward Rick Nash has just one in 19 post-season contests wearing a Rangers sweater. Whichever streak ends first could swing the balance of the series. Crosby had six assists against the Blue Jackets, including one to Malkin in the first period of Game 6 in Columbus that gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead. Crosby knows he needs to take more chances. So does Nash, who can live with the drought as long as the Rangers keep it going. "Thats all that matters," Nash said. "Im going to try to keep getting my game going." LUNDQVIST VS. FLEURY: New Yorks Henrik Lundqvist and Pittsburghs Marc-Andre Fleury are the two winningest goaltenders in the regular season over the past five years, combining for 334 victories. Yet Lundqvist has yet to lift the Rangers past the conference finals while Fleury has struggled in the playoffs since helping the Penguins win the Stanley Cup in 2009. Both had their wayward moments in the first round. Both responded with brilliant play. Whoever gets hot — and stays hot — will give his team the upper hand. POWERLESS POWER PLAY: The Rangers went just 3 for 29 on the power play against Philadelphia, ending the series by failing to score 21 straight times with the man advantage. Not exactly the recipe to hang with the Penguins, who had the NHLs best power play during the regular season and was a solid 4 for 15 against the Blue Jackets while adding a pair of short-handed goals in the process. GENOS BACK: Like Crosby, Malkin was in the midst of a lengthy goal drought before coming up with his second career playoff hat trick in the clincher against the Blue Jackets. The rust that came with missing the final three weeks of the regular season appeared to vanish as he lit up Columbus goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 6. Playing alongside Crosby at times to try to shake loose the cobwebs, Malkin got hot. Expect to see the two MVPs on the ice frequently against New York. NEW YORK MINUTE: Game 1 marks the middle of a busy stretch in which the Rangers will play five times in seven days. Thats fine by them considering it beats the alternative of watching from home. "Now were in the middle of it and were in the battle," New York forward Brad Richards said. "This is when it gets real fun." ___ AP Sports Writer Ira Podell in New York contributed to this report. Tony Gwynn Jersey . - Jesse Shynkaruk scored a hat trick as the Moose Jaw Warriors snapped a seven-game losing streak with an 8-2 win over the Prince Albert Raiders in Western Hockey League action on Saturday. Wholesale Padres Jerseys . He never mentioned anything about his hitting. The 33-year-old right-hander had success with both Sunday, pitching six solid innings and helping the offence-starved Mets with an RBI single as New York salvaged a doubleheader split with a 4-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. http://www.cheappadresjerseys.com/?tag= ... nes-jersey. The Red Sox maintained a share of the AL wild-card lead Tuesday night, using four home runs to beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-7 and set up a dramatic conclusion to the regular season. The skidding Red Sox were 6-19 this month before rebounding to edge the last-place Orioles. Cheap San Diego Padres Jerseys . The Leafs were back on the ice Wednesday following an 10-day break. It apparently wasnt long enough, as Team Canadas 2-1 win over Latvia didnt conclude before the Leafs began practice. "I was thinking we might get a little delay, but it was nice to get out there," said Tyler Bozak of watching Wednesdays game. Cory Spangenberg Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. ST. JOHNS, N.L. -- The St. Johns IceCaps set a franchise record with seven straight wins Friday night, beating the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 3-2 in American Hockey League action. IceCaps head coach Keith McCambridge was happy with the result, but said the team isnt spending time thinking about records. "I wouldnt say were separating our shoulders patting ourselves on the back," McCambridge said. "Were happy we were able to get the win. "I like the fact that we put a lot of shots on the net and we had traffic. We were able to get a goal and build off thata And, we will take the seven (wins)." IceCaps defenceman Julian Melchiori scored his first goal of the season in the win. "I think its awesome," he said. "The team is rolling right now. Its all working for us. Hopefully we can keep rolling tomorrow and move up in the standings. Its good to contribute whenever you can and I was happy (to score)." The 22-year-old is in his second season with the IceCaps, and McCambridge said Melchiori is getting up to stride. "The season has been interesting for him," McCambridge said. "He had a strong year last year and then came back this season and any time he was able to start getting his feet underneath him and be playing strong, an injury would sset him back.dddddddddddd I really feel were starting to see him take strides to be a strong, potential NHL defenceman." Jerome Samson and Blair Riley also scored for St. Johns (35-19-4). Johan Sundstrom and Chris Langkow replied for the Sound Tigers (26-27-5). Samson opened the scoring for the IceCaps, scoring a power-play goal on a low wrister through traffic from the faceoff dot with 3:41 left in the first period. Melchiori doubled the lead, wiring home a crisp wrist shot from the point at the 14:25 mark of the second period. Kyle MacKinnon fanned on a shot and chased it to the net, tapping it in during the ensuing scramble to put St. Johns up 3-0, 1:13 into the third period. Sundstrom scored for Bridgeport, burying a wrist shot from the point which fooled IceCaps goalie Michael Hutchinson blocker side at the 3:08 mark of the third period. Langkow whacked in a loose puck on the doorstep to put the Sound Tigers within one with 2:10 left in the game. IceCaps forward Carl Klingberg left the game with just over a minute left after taking a knee-on-knee hit from Aaron Ness, who was served a five-minute kneeing penalty and a game misconduct. Klingberg will be further evaluated tomorrow. Bridgeport goalie Kevin Poulin made 36 saves. Hutchinson stopped 22 for the IceCaps. 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