Rare stinker loss for the Rangers vs Canucks

Chalk this one up to the “you can’t win ’em all” philosophy.  The New York Rangers played a stinker at the Garden, losing  2-5 to the Vancouver Canucks.  Calling the game a stinker may be an exaggeration, but they were down 4-0 with about 10 minutes left and a late push made the score respectable.

The team had the misfortune to run into a hot goalie in Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko who stole this win for the Canucks with an outstanding first period. The Rangers had the better of the play, dominating the opening stanza, but the Canucks came out with a two goal lead.

The turning point was the two power plays that Vancouver killed, mostly due to their goalie.   The second Canucks goal was a killer, in the final minute, coming right after the second Rangers power play ended and after a sterling scoring chance by K’Andre Miller.

Coach Gerard Gallant spoke about Demko,  “He made some great saves…the power play was jumping, they had some good chances.   Demko made some key saves at key times in the first.”

The second period was all Canucks as they poured it on, outshooting the Rangers 15-6.  It was the Rangers third game in four days, a fact that Vancouver was well aware of and they took advantage of an obviously spent Rangers squad.

The Blueshirts didn’t wake up until the third period when they finally broke a 118 minute, 44 second scoreless schneid on a goal from Alexis Lafrenière.   It was a great shot by Lafrenière on a pass from Mika Zibanejad.

The crowd got really into the game when Ryan Strome scored on the rebound of a shot by Artemi Panarin just over four minutes later.

Down two goals with six minutes left, the ice tilted in the Rangers favor and a comeback was in the works.

It all came crashing to a halt when Barclay Goodrow was taken down on a breakaway, but no penalty was called.  Gerard Gallant was livid over the non-call, but even though the Rangers pulled the goalie with over three minutes left, they couldn’t get through Demko and then Elias Petterson scored into the empty net to seal the win.

It would be easy to pin the blame for the loss on Alexandar Georgiev who allowed four goals on 33 shots and at least two of the goals were stoppable, but he had not played in a full month.

It was more the story of the Canucks goalie’s outstanding play than Georgiev’s poor play.  Gallant said the same,  “I was more disappointed with some of our backchecks than Georgie to be honest with you.  We didn’t work hard enough on a couple of their goals coming back.”

Here’s a five minute video recap of the game:

It was definitely a game that had a weird feeling to it. When the Rangers couldn’t put the puck past Thatcher Demko despite numerous chances in the first period, you could sense a letdown.  The late comeback left everyone feeling just a little better, but it was a game that the Rangers could have won. It happens.