The New York Rangers blow a game to the Kings in overtime 4-3

The New York Rangers cannot beat the Los Angeles Kings and it goes back to the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals. A Kings goal in the last minute tied the game and 25 seconds into overtime they won it. It was a very ugly loss.

Lightning has struck twice, in both of the games with Los Angeles.  The Kings scored goals in the last minute of both games, the first time to win and in this game to tie.  In the overtime Mika Zibanejad hit the post on a two-on-one break and Tyler Toffoli came back on their own two-on- one and beat Henrik Lundqvist.

This was a game that the Rangers controlled from the opening faceoff, but their bugaboo, the lack of secondary scoring came back to haunt them.  For once there was a goal not scored by the Zibanejad line, but it was scored by a defenseman.  Once again, the nine other forwards were skunked.

Henrik Lundqvist didn’t have a great game. Arguably, at the very least he should have had  the tying goal.  At any rate, he was outplayed by Jonathan Quick.

The game got off to a great start.  The Rangers had a lot of jump and dominated possession.  At 8:32 the Rangers got on the scoreboard and it was Chris Kreider’s goal on a wonderful pass from Tony DeAngelo and the secondary assist for Mika Zibanejad.

The Kings challenged the goal, claiming that Kreider was offside on the entry into the zone 40 seconds before the goal was scored. The challenge was overturned and the Kings had to kill a delay of game penalty.

The Rangers were swarming. It felt like the Kings were barely touching the puck.  That was until they scored.  It was set up by a breakout pass from Drew Doughty to Carl Hagelin. The ex-Ranger got the puck to Kovalchuk who faked a shot and passed to a wide open Adrian Kempe who put it past Lundqvist.   Hagelin and Kovalchuk were covered, but the Ranger forwards, most notably Jesper Fast,  let Kempe get loose.

So, did they dominate the first period?  The Rangers’ first period Corsi was 68% with 15 shot attempts to seven for Los Angeles.  They outshot the Kings 12-8 and but for Jonathan Quick, could have had two or three goals.

They came right out in the second period and kept it up and again, it was Zibanejad line, only 32 seconds into the period,

Marc Staal took a shot from the point that deflected to Zuccarello who then took the shot.  The rebound came right out to ZIbanejad who had an open net for his 21st goal.  With that goal, he had a hand in ten straight Ranger goals, a team record.  He also set a personal record with his 52nd point, one more than his career high.  On the first Ranger goal he set a personal best with his 31st assist.

It’s worth noting that the goal came right after Lundqvist had made a great stop on Alex Iafallo who was left wide open in front of the Ranger net. The rest of the period was back and forth hockey and while the Rangers had the better of the play, it was getting sloppier and the Kings actually outshot the Rangers 13-12.

Still, considering the weak offense of the Kings and the fact that they had not come back to win a game that they had trailed going into the third period, it looked like the Rangers would prevail.   That’s when Anze Kopitar beat Lundqvist with a nasty backhand shot, five minutes into the period.

Things look even worse when Adam McQuaid shot a clearing attempt into the stands and the Rangers had to kill a penalty, 17 seconds after the Kopitar goal. The Blueshirts survived the penalty and then it was Adam McQuaid who put the Rangers ahead with his first Ranger goal.

MCQUAID!!!

The goal came at 9:15 and it was unassisted off a giveaway by Carl Hagelin.  As an unassisted goal, it ended Zibanejad’s point streak and ten straight goals.  It was McQuaid’s first goal as a Ranger and his first in almost a year.  With ten minutes left in the game it was up to the Rangers to hang on for the win.

The Rangers actually did a good job, holding the Kings to only one shot by Dion Phaneuf until there was one minute left in the game.

The Kings shot the puck into the Rangers’ zone and Tyler Toffoli used his speed to beat everyone to the puck.  He shoveled it to the front of the net and Adrian Kempe was driving to the goal and got the puck past Lundqvist.   There was some controversy as Kempe had high-sticked McQuaid in the face and was able to get free of McQuaid as a result.  The defenseman complained, but it was ignored.

The overtime sums up this Ranger season.  The Kings hemmed the Rangers in their zone until Brady Skjei was able to spring Zibanejad on a two-on-one with Zuccarello.  Zibanejad took the shot and it clanged off the right post.   Adrian Kempe got to the rebound and passed to the speedy  Toffoli who took the shot and beat Lundqvist.

It took all of 25 seconds for the Rangers to lose.