Another disappointing loss for the Rangers in a season filled with disappointing losses.
Jamie Benn scored at 2:17 of overtime to give the Dallas Stars a come from behind 5-4 win over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden last night.
Alexis Lafreniere and Vincent Trocheck each scored two goals but the defensively deficient Rangers blew two leads as they gave up five goals for the fifth time in the last seven games and the 13th time this season.
Trocheck added an assist for a three point night while Artemi Panarin had three assists, all in the first period.
The Rangers saw a 3-0 lead in the first period evaporate as the Stars tied the game in the second period. They retook the lead in the third, but, for most of the night they were outplayed and the Stars were able to tie the game once again to send the game to overtime.
“You come out of the gate, you’re up 3-0 at home, you don’t win a hockey game, you did enough wrong defensively to not be happy with it, said a frustrated Coach Peter Laviolette.
To add insult to injury, Filip Chytil left the game with an upper body injury. With Chytil’s history of concussions, any time he leaves the ice, there has to be some concern. “Upper body, being evaluated,”Laviolette said.
Jonathan Quick, who was seeking his 400th career win, made 39 saves and nearly achieved that milestone. Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger made 25 saves in earning his 20th win of the season.
The Stars got their chance to win the game when Artemi Panarin went off for hooking at :35 seconds of overtime.
Stars defenseman Thomas Harley got the winning play started when he found Jason Robertson in the right face off circle. Benn was standing in front of the net when he took Robertson’s pass and was able to just guide it past Quick for the game winner.
Alexis Lafreniere scored his first goal in 14 games when he gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead in the first period. Lafreniere took a drop pass from Panarin and fired it past Oettinger to end a lengthy drought at 6:56 of the first period.
The Rangers made it 2-0 at 9:55 of the first period when Trocheck scored a on a deflection of Will Borgen’s shot.
Less than two minutes later, Panarin sent Lafreniere in on a breakaway and he was able to back hand the puck past Oettinger for a stunning 3-0 lead that may have felt more comfortable for last year’s Ranger team, but not this season.
Dallas got on the board when Matt Duchene attempted to pass the puck but it deflected off the stick of Ranger defenseman Urho Vaakanainen’s stick to cut the lead to 3-1 at 12:57.
The Stars cut the lead to one on the power play. Mavrik Bourque fired a shot from the right face off circle and the rebound went right to Evegnii Dadanov who put it into the open net at 15:56 of the first as the Ranger lead was cut to 3-2.
The Stars tied the game at three when Robertson skated behind the Ranger net and back handed the puck past Quick at 13:14 of the second period.
The Rangers retook the lead on the power play at 12:56 of the third period when Trocheck scored his second of the game on deflection to make it 4-3, but as has been their wont this season, they couldn’t hang on.
K’Andre Miller committed a bad turnover in his own zone that led to the tying goal. Sam Steel stole the puck and skated behind the Ranger net. Steel kept going and passed to Harley who fired the puck, top shelf past Quick from the right face off circle.
“There’s things that go wrong on every goal so there was definitely things we could have done better inside of that goal as well and there was a couple of breakdowns on that particular instance,” Laviolette said.
Despite a three point night, Trocheck bemoaned the loss. “My fault on the fourth goal so doesn’t really do anything if you don’t win the game so got to clean that up,” he said.
Last season, if the Rangers got a lead, they usually hung on for the win. Not so this season.
“It’s five guys just maybe a little off whether it be one guy thinks another guy’s going to go,” Adam Fox said. “Lack of communication I think is a big thing there but I think we obviously want to create chances but at the same time you don’t want it to come back the other way right at you with three on twos, four on threes or even two on ones.”
The Rangers fell to 6-16-2 in their last 24 games as they continued this incredible fall from grace. After winning the President’s Trophy last season, through 40 games, the Rangers are third from the bottom in the Eastern Conference, three points ahead of the last place Buffalo Sabres.