Rangers end road trip with ugly 6-2 loss to Oilers
Jonathan Quick was under siege early and often, Connor McDavid scored twice and the New York Rangers wound up with an ugly 6-2 loss to Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Saturday night.
It was a disappointing finale to a four-game road trip that saw the Rangers (12-6-1) win the first two before allowing a combined 89 shots on goal in consecutive losses to the Calgary Flames and Oilers. The Rangers also lost consecutive games for the first time this season and lost by at least four goals for the second time this season.
Similar to Igor Shesterkin’s 46-save performance in Calgary on Thursday, Quick gave the Rangers a chance to get the lead by stopping the first 18 shots to extend his shutout streak to 146 minutes, 39 seconds, before he allowed two goals in the final 2:26 of the first period. Among his noteworthy saves in that busy first period was executing a split and making a right pad save on McDavid with 7:04 left and five minutes after stopping the superstar on a 2-on-1.
McDavid had two goals in the third period after the Oilers put the game out of reach and also set up Leon Draisaitl’s goal on a 4-on-4 in the second period for a three-point game.
Vasily Podkolzin opened the scoring and Darnell Nurse scored a shorthanded goal in the final seconds of the opening period, and Evan Bouchard scored the fourth goal against Quick before the second period ended.
“It was different tonight,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said after the game. “It seemed like our heads were in it. Our game didn’t follow. The other night we just seemed to be flat. Anything that came in d-zone coverage I don’t think we handled it well. We were pushed back on our heels. You can’t win hockey games that way.”
Artemi Panarin scored late in the second period when the Rangers started spending more time on the attack. Panarin added his second goal of the night and 12th of the season in the latter portion of the third.
“It was really bad,” defenseman Adam Fox said postgame. “It was flat out, it was not good today.”
Quick allowed his most goals since joining the Rangers as a free agent before last season. He allowed at least six for the first time since March 28, 2023 with the Vegas Golden Knights and the 18th time overall in his impressive career.
The Rangers fell to 7-6-0 since opening the season with a six-game points streak (5-0-1) that often masked some of their defensive deficiencies. The Rangers were held under three goals for the seventh time in their past 13 games since the quick start.
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Edmonton Oilers 6 – New York Rangers 2
Quick saw the Oilers constantly charge into the offensive zone and was under siege to start the game. Podkolzin opened the scoring with 2:26 left in the opening period. Moments after Panarin fell down near the blue line in the Rangers offensive zone, Podkozlin blasted a one-timer from the edge of the right face-off circle past Quick.
Another breakdown resulted in the Rangers entering the first intermission with a two-goal deficit.
Nurse skated into the Rangers zone unimpeded, parked himself in the right circle and blasted a short-handed shot over Quick after Mattias Janmark made a cross-ice pass when New York could not retrieve the puck from the boards.
“That can’t happen,” Laviolette said. “That shoudn’t happen.”
The Rangers second power play was negated after 20 seconds when Vincent Trocheck hooked Janmark in front of the Edmonton net with 11:58 left in the second period, and 52 seconds later Draisaitl finished off a give-and-go with McDavid on the 4-on-4 to make it 3-0.
New York was 0-for-3 on the power play Saturday and hasn’t scored a power-play goal in five games.
Following a giveaway by Jacob Trouba at the side of the net, the Oilers cycled the puck around and Bouchard lifted a shot over Quick to make it 4-0 with 8:02 remaining in the second.
Panarin scored his first goal of the night at 15:02 when he sent a wrist shot from the right circle over Stuart Skinner’s stick a few seconds after digging the puck out of the corner from Corey Perry.
McDavid scored twice in a span of 3:48 in the third. He redirected a pass by Bouchard for an easy tap-in at the right side of the net and then lifted a shot over Quick’s right pad after getting by rookie Victor Mancini and faking a shot.
After losing the final two games of their longest road trip this season, the Rangers return home Monday to face the St. Louis Blues before visiting the Carolina Hurricanes and Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday and Friday, wrapping around Thanksgiving Day.
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