Rangers blow 3-0 lead, fall to Stars in overtime 5-4
Seemingly on their way to a comfortable win on home ice, the New York Rangers instead blew a 3-0 lead early and a 4-3 lead late on their way to a 5-4 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars.
Jamie Benn scored the game-winner with a power-play goal at 2:15 of overtime. Camped out in front of Jonathan Quick, Benn shoved Adam Fox away from him and then redirected a Jason Robertson pass into the net to hand the Rangers a brutal defeat.
It’s just the latest blown opportunity for the Rangers to win consecutive games, something they haven’t done since Nov. 14-19, when they won three in a row. Six times since they’ve failed to follow up a win with another. The Rangers are 6-16-1 in their past 23 games.
“You come out of the gates, you’re up 3-0 at home and you don’t win the hockey game, you did enough wrong defensively to not be happy with it,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said.
Their offense continued its recent resurgence, though. The Rangers have scored 14 goals in their past three games, though winning just once.
Vincent Trocheck scored two goals and added an assist to lead the Rangers. His power-play goal at 12:56 of the third period gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead after they let a 3-0 advantage slip away. Thomas Harley tied it for the Stars with his sixth goal of the season at 17:21 of the third.
Alexis Lafreniere also scored twice for the Rangers and Artemi Panarin, who was in the penalty box when Benn scored the winner, had three assists. Jonathan Quick made 35 saves but remains stuck on 399 career wins.
To make matters worse for the Rangers, Filip Chytil left the game after the second period and didn’t return. The 25-year-old center was said to have an upper-body injury, and Laviolette said postgame that Chytil is being evaluated.
Jake Oettinger finished with 21 saves for the Stars after allowing three goals on the first five shots he faced in the first period. Harley had three points (one goal, two assists) and Robertson had a goal and assist. Matt Duchene and Evgenii Dadonov also scored for the Stars, who won their fifth game in a row and avenged a 3-1 home loss to the Rangers on Dec. 20.
“This one sucks, especially after our start,” Lafreniere said. “I feel like we were playing well, ‘Quickie’ made some big saves again — we can’t keep giving up good chances after good chances. Eventually it’s gonna go in.”
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Dallas Stars 5 — New York Rangers 4 (OT)
Early on, it appeared the Rangers were well on their way to a second straight win and Quick would end the night with his 400th NHL victory. But a 3-0 lead just 11:24 into the game turned into a 3-3 tie before the second intermission arrived.
Despite the Stars owning a territorial edge to begin the game, it was the Rangers who exploded out of the gates with three goals on their first five shots to get the Garden party started. Lafreniere opened the scoring at 6:56, taking a drop pass off the rush from Panarin and zipping a left-wing shot past Oettinger short side to make it 1-0.
Lafreniere got off an excellent shot, and was a bit fortunate, when the puck slightly deflected off the stick of Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist and changed direction just enough to fly past Oettinger. Lafreniere was happy to catch a break, considering that was his first goal since Dec. 8, a span of 14 games.
The Rangers were rewarded with a second goal at 9:55 after an extended shift in the offensive zone. Trocheck deflected Will Borgen’s shot into the net for his first goal of the game.
Lafreniere then scored his second of the period and 11th of the season on a clean breakaway at 11:24 to make it 3-0. The rejuvenated 23-year-old burst behind the Stars defense to take a perfect lead pass from Panarin, then slowed down as he approached Oettinger before beating him with a backhander between his pads.
The rout appeared to be on. But this wouldn’t be like their 6-2 runaway win against the overmatched Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday. Duchene got a lucky one back for the Stars at 12:57, when his centering pass for a cutting Benn instead hit the stick of Rangers defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and redirected past Quick to make it 3-1.
Before the first period ended, Dadonov buried the rebound of Mavrik Bourque’s power-play shot at 15:56 and the Rangers’ lead was cut to 3-2.
Though the Rangers had the lead, they were outshot 19-8 in the first period, and the scoring chances favored the Stars 16-8, including 9-5 in high-danger opportunities, per Natural Stat Trick.
Outside of the scoreboard, the game remained lopsided in favor of the Stars in the second period. They only outshot the Rangers 10-9, but the scoring chances were 15-9. Despite controlling play, the Stars were only able to score once in the second period, but did tie the game 3-3.
The tying goal came at 13:14, when Robertson’s spinning backhand shot sailed over Quick’s shoulder after Dallas had pinned New York in its own zone for an extended stretch.
The Rangers were fortunate it wasn’t worse than being tied at the second intermission. Robertson hit the far post off a left-wing rush just 17 seconds into the period, and Bourque rang a left-wing shot off iron at 11:53.
On the shift following Robertson’s tying goal, Mika Zibanejad had a clean breakaway after a pass from Jonny Brodzinski. But the Rangers center sent his backhand shot wide of the net. Four minutes later, Lafreniere saw his bid for the hat trick sail wide when he misfired on an in-tight backhand shot.
In a wild sequence early in the third period, each team missed an open net on a tip in front. First, it was Robertson left staring at the MSG ceiling in disbelief; at the other end, Trocheck also missed an open cage and the score remained tied.
But Trocheck had another goal in him. Handed a power play at 11:20 when Harley sent the puck over the glass for a delay of game minor, the Rangers had several good scoring chances. After a whistle late in the power play, Laviolette used his timeout to rest his top players and keep them out on the ice to finish the power play.
That paid off when Trocheck scored again on a deflection, this one on a straightaway shot by Zibanejad, to put the Rangers back up 4-3 with 7:04 to play in regulation.
However, the lead was short-lived. Harley made up for his ill-timed penalty by wiring a shot from the slot past Quick with 2:39 to play, tying the game 4-4. The goal was set up by a nice pass from Stars forward Sam Steel after K’Andre Miller turned the puck over in his own end.
That sent the game to overtime. And just 25 seconds in, Panarin was penalized for a hooking penalty while chasing his man to the net. The Rangers nearly killed off the penalty, but the Stars scored on their only shot on goal during the man advantage.
Following a day off to regroup, again, the Rangers host the New Jersey Devils at MSG on Thursday.
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