New York Rangers implosion results in embarrassing loss to Oilers
If Gerard Gallant thought the New York Rangers third period against the San Jose Sharks was embarrassing earlier in the year, what will he say about this?
Entering the final 20 minutes of play up by three goals and absolutely shutting down the Edmonton Oilers, the Rangers stopped playing hard.
They paid for it dearly. Four unanswered goals led to undoubtedly the Rangers worst loss of the season.
We just got passive and they capitalized,” Adam Fox said on the MSG postgame. “We just gave them too many chances. We played on our heels. A lot of frustration in here. We just need to move forward and bring it next game.”
Recap: Oilers 4 vs Rangers 3
1st Period
Although the shots were 10-9 in favor of the home team, it felt like the Rangers were in complete control of this contest.
Alexis Lafreniere opened the scoring at the 2:20 mark as he won the battle in front of the net for position. Adam Fox held on to the puck looking for Laffy’s stick to be free for a nice tap in by Jack Campbell. Ryan Lindgren registered the secondary assist.
“I just try to get to the net when Foxy has it,” Lafreniere said during the MSG intermission. “It was an easy tap in.”
For the most part, the Rangers kept the Oilers big guns at bay with Leon Draisaitl being held to one shot and Connor McDavid to zero in the opening frame.
Artemi Panarin was probably the most frustrated player on the ice as he believed he scored twice. His first was a slapper on the PP that was ruled offside and the second was ruled no-goal due to inclusive video evidence.
2nd Period
The Oilers came out very strong in the middle stanza and would eventually outshoot the Rangers by a 14-7 margin. Thanks to Igor Shesterkin’s strong goaltending, Edmonton was not able to break through.
New York would score a goal off a shot by Braden Schneider that was ruled another no goal, this time for goalie interference. Ryan Carpenter’s skate touched Campbell’s just before the puck went in.
Instead of being deterred, the Rangers came even harder notching two goals in 33 seconds.
First, Chris Kreider recognized Campbell being way of position and banked the puck off him with a backhand from behind the goal line. Lindgren and Panarin registered the assists on the play at 15:54.
On the very next shift, the fourth line crashed the crease as Julien Gauthier benefited from the chaos for his fourth of the season, a career-high. This time Carpenter would get the assist with linemate Sammy Blais notched the other.
3rd Period
Implosion!
That’s how the final frame of this game went due to the Rangers deciding to stop skating and puck watching leaving Shesterkin out to dry.
Evan Bouchard scored two times in less than three minutes and then rookie Dylan Holloway registered his first NHL goal to tie the game at three by the 10:21 mark of the third period.
With 2:26 remaining, Lafreniere took a roughing penalty to put the Oilers lethal power play on the ice. It took all of 24 seconds for Draisaitl to put home the go-ahead goal and seal a come from behind victory.
“I wish I could (explain it). A couple of dumb penalties didn’t help,” Gallant said. “They get four goals in the third period because we gave them the opportunities.”
Notable Rangers
- Igor Shesterkin stopped 28 of 32
- NYR PP went 0-3
- Oilers PP went 2-3
- Last time the NYR lost a game up by 3 in the third period was in 2006 vs Lightning (per MSG)
Sunday, November 27: Practice at MSG Training Center, 12:00 PM ET
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