By Dave Lozo, The Sports Xchange

NEW YORK -- After letting a first-period lead slip away at home against the New York Rangers on Monday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins talked about the importance of responding to the blowout loss when the teams faced off again Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

It took about 20 minutes, but the Penguins responded forcefully and with vengeance.

After falling behind 1-0, the Penguins scored six straight goals in what became a 6-1 throttling of the Rangers that featured a five-goal second period highlighted by Sidney Crosby's 13th and 14th goals of the season.

The dominance extended to the defensive side of the game; the Penguins held the Rangers without a shot for nearly 24 minutes across the second and third periods. The Rangers were credited with five shots total in the third period, four of which were the result of a generous interpretation of a shot by the official scorer.

The Penguins (12-5-3) delivered a rare humbling of the Rangers (14-6-1), who had only allowed more than four goals once in their first 20 games.

"It goes to show how dominant we can be when we're playing on our toes and playing with the puck, using our speed," said Penguins goaltender Matt Murray, who made a crucial save in the final seconds of the first period to keep his team within one goal. "Teams can't keep up with us when we're playing like that, even a team like that. They're pretty fast in their own right."

The Rangers were held to a season-low 17 shots.

"We played some good hockey for a period and change, and then it got away from us and we just never grabbed a hold of it," Rangers center Derek Stepan said. "It's a good team and we didn't have an answer. We didn't even give ourselves a chance."

A power-play goal from left winger Rick Nash -- his ninth of the season -- helped the Rangers get to the second period with a 1-0 lead. But it all unraveled quickly in the second period.

Left winger Scott Wilson finished a back-door pass from right winger Phil Kessel to tie the score at 1 at 2:02. Less than three minutes later, Crosby deflected a point shot past goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to put the Penguins on top for good. Kessel and Crosby added goals midway through the period to make it 4-1 and chase Lundqvist (13 saves) from the game.

It took less than four minutes for Conor Sheary to make it 5-1 against Antti Raanta, who stopped 19 of 21 shots in relief to keep the dam from completely breaking.

"I think tonight we got a little puck luck," the understated Sheary said. "I think we earned our chances and you're not going to lose much when you score six goals, so that was good for us."

Rangers coach Alain Vigneault, who usually has the answers to the how and why after most games, was at a loss to explain his team's second-period collapse and impotent showing in the third period.

"It's very difficult to explain," Vigneault said. "There's no doubt we disappointed ourselves tonight. We disappointed our fans. I thought we played a pretty strong first period ... had some good looks early in the second period and then the game got away from us. It's tough to explain why. We have a Friday afternoon game (in Philadelphia) and right now our response as a team is very important and we need to focus on that."

The Rangers have lost three of four and are in their first funk of the season. The Penguins have been finding ways to win despite not playing anywhere near as well as they did at the end of their Stanley Cup season a year ago, but this could be a sign they are ready to turn the corner.

"When our team plays the right way, I think we control territory," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "I thought we were able to take their transition game away a little bit. With how we were playing, it was a team effort. We got everybody involved.

"I thought it was as good of a team effort as we've had all season."

NOTES: Penguins LW Chris Kunitz (lower body) is week to week, but coach Mike Sullivan said he does not expect him to need surgery. ... Penguins RW Patric Hornqvist (concussion) is day to day but did not travel to New York. ... Penguins LW Tom Sestito and D Steve Oleksy were healthy scratches. ... Rangers LW Matt Puempel, who was claimed off waivers from the Ottawa Senators on Monday, was a healthy scratch along with D Adam Clendening. ... Rangers LW Pavel Buchnevich should be out two to three weeks after an MRI on his ailing back revealed no structural damage.