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.
He passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then he walked through the Lincoln Tunnel 🚨 pic.twitter.com/Ef1d2PpSVI
— 🏆 - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) December 18, 2021
When the second period started, the 1-0 lead lasted all of 17 seconds until Mika Zibanejad scored on a bomb.
Define Mika magic. pic.twitter.com/iwglhzcAqL
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) December 18, 2021
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.
He's AUTOMATIC. pic.twitter.com/KsPi3FsNcN
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) December 18, 2021
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.
🗣 GEORGIE
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) December 18, 2021
Kept us in it. pic.twitter.com/F080SVwP6p
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.
Notes on the game
Brett Howden came back to haunt his ex-teammates, scoring the first Vegas goal and assisting on the tying goal. In 21 games in Vegas he now has exceeded his totals last season with the Rangers in only half the games. Ironically, his goal was the first he has scored at Madison Square Garden where he has played 34 games since February 2020. Of course, he was a New York Ranger for the first 33 games. He also won the faceoff that led to the goal that tied the game in the third period.
Mika Zibanejad had a dynamic game and started it by missing on a breakaway just 51 seconds into the game. He made up for it with his second period goal that was an absolute blast. He then fed a sweet pass to Chris Kreider for the power play goal. He won 15 of 19 faceoffs, but did lose the draw that led to the game tying goal.
Chris Kreider ended a five-game goal scoring drought with his 11th power play goal of the season. He is only two goals behind Leon Draisaitl for second place in the NHL and is tied for fourth place in the league with 18 goals.
With Artemi Panarin out of the game, he was replaced by Alexis Lafrenière with Filip Chytil playing left wing on third line centered by Barclay Goodrow. The bottom nine did very little offensively with the Zibanejad line accounting for 12 of the 20 shots by Rangers forwards.
There was an interesting ruling on the penalties assessed to Vegas in the second period. The Rangers were on the power play when Alex Pietrangelo was assessed a high sticking penalty at 10:25. The Blueshirts scored their goal at almost the exact same time the penalty was assessed, though it was a delayed penalty. When teams are at even strength, the delayed penalty is wiped out, but when a team is already on the power play, the referee has the discretion to let the second penalty stand.
Speaking of referees, the game was officiated by only one, Pierre Lambert. As a result, there were two plays that could have hurt the Blueshirts. On one, the Julie Gauthier scored, but it didn’t count as the ref had blown the whistle just before as the Rangers net was dislodged. The question is whether goalie Laurent Brossoit had relaxed when he heard the whistle. Later, Adam Fox was cIearly tripped and it resulted in a Vegas near-breakaway that was broken up by Lafrenière.
Laf with the backcheck! #NoQuitInNY pic.twitter.com/ZqdDOQJAmO
— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) December 18, 2021
It should have been a third Ranger power play.
The power play was 1-2 while they killed the only Vegas penalty. The Vegas penalty killing is one of their weaknesses and the Rangers didn’t do enough to draw penalties, especially in the third period.
Alexandar Georgiev had a very good game and made some spectacular saves, especially in the overtime. He made two stops on Max Pacioretty when he had a breakaway in the overtime. The shootout loss even his record this season at 1-1. He is 6-3 lifetime in shootouts and has stopped 23 of 35 shot attempts.
GEORGIE. 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/tD9FWsAMgA
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) December 18, 2021
Georgiev has allowed only 12 goals in his six starts since replacing Igor Shesterkin.
Ryan Reaves led the Rangers with six hits against his former teammates.
This was the fifth time the Rangers have blown a third period lead this season. Despite that, they have yet to lose in regulation so of a potential 10 points, they have gained seven.
The Rangers now had gotten points in 23 of 30 games and their 42 points are good for second place in the Metropolitan Division and they are tied for second most overall in the NHL. Their total of seven losses is tied for the third fewest in the NHL.
The negative is that they have won only two of their last six games, their worst such stretch of the season. Before anyone panics, they are 12 points ahead of the Bruins who are the team with the most points out of the playoffs right now.
My 3 Rangers stars
- Mika Zibanejad played his best game of the season, finishing with one goal and one assist and he could have had more. He had a team high seven shots on goal. He has three goals in his last five games along with two assists.
- Alexandar Georgiev was very, very good, especially in the overtime. He cannot be faulted for either of the two goals and he didn’t get any scoring support in the shootout. He is back.
- Chris Kreider added to his team leading goal scoring totals and could have had two more goals. He had five shots on goal and was second among forwards in ice time.
The official 3 stars
- Mika Zibanejad – Rangers
- Brett Howden- Golden Knights
- Laurent Brossoit – Golden Knights
What’s next
The schedule gets very light with only one game on Wednesday against Montreal in the next nine days. It’s a good time for a slow schedule with COVID ravaging the NHL. It gets busy right after that with five games in nine days against some tough competition including Edmonton, Tampa (twice), and Florida.