Rangers blow third period lead, lose 3-2 in shootout

The New York Rangers played one of the top NHL teams toe-to-toe and should have come away with two points, but had to settle for only one when when they allowed the Vegas Golden Knights to tie the game in the third period and after a wild overtime, lost in a shootout.

Vegas was on the second game of back-to-backs, but that was offset by the loss of Artemi Panarin,out with a lower body injury.  The team played well without him, but he was sorely missed in the overtime and shootout.

The Rangers left the first period trailing 1-0 after a mediocre start.  Of course it was ex-Ranger Brett Howden who beat Kevin Rooney and got to his own rebound to score.

When the second period started, the 1-0 lead lasted all of 17 seconds until Mika Zibanejad scored on a bomb.

Halfway through the period, Nicolas Roy slashed Zibanejad and it was Chris Kreider who scored on the power play to put the Rangers up 2-1.

They had a second straight power play and Ryan Strome hit the crossbar, just missing a goal that could have been sealed the outcome. They outshot the Golden Knights 11-4 and Vegas was lucky to escape down only one goal.

In the third period, the Rangers took their foot off the offensive pedal and played too conservatively in an attempt to hold the lead.  As a result they had only two shots on goal to the Knights’ 10 and they allowed the visitors to regain the momentum.   There’s no doubt that the Rangers played a shutdown defense in the third period, but the Golden Knights are a very talented team at even strength and to expect them to hold the one goal lead was too much. At 14:44 Dylan Coghlan scored on a screened shot and it was a tie game.

They revived the offense in the overtime and exchanged golden opportunities.  Chris Kreider and Filip Chytil had breaks and Max Pacioretty had two of his own.

It as wild five minutes, but neither team could score.

It went to a shootout and Georgiev stopped the first two shots before being beaten by Jonathan Marchessault.  Vegas goalie Lauren Brossoit stopped Kakko, Zibanejad and Strome for the win.

Gerard Gallant was hesitant to criticize his team. He said “The first 15 minutes weren’t great. After that I thought we played real good hockey the rest of the way.”  When pressed about the third period, he first tried to say that neither team did much,but he did admit that they did sit back.

“I don’t tell them that, but it happens to them mentally sometimes when you’re playing a talented team.  I want us to keep going…play a little safer…it’s a mental thing sometimes.”  He continued, “The second period was as perfect a period as we’ve played all year.  I don’t think we played bad in the third, but we didn’t take it like we did in the second.”

Mika Zibanejad spoke about the disappointment of losing the one point.  “You now how dangerous they are…they’re a good team, there’s a tendency to back off too much.”   He continued, “We’ve talked about the two points being the most important thing, but how we played against a really tough team is something we can take with us.”

Here is a video recap of the game.

The criticism that the Rangers cannot beat the top teams won’t go away, but this game was nothing to be ashamed of.  Vegas is red hot and very talented with an outstanding transition game.  The Rangers played them even in a game that they could have won.  The question is whether they are lacking the killer instinct or are they just missing the offensive pieces they need to finish off an opponent like the Golden Knights.