K'Andre Miller's overtime goal gives Rangers their fourth straight win

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — K’Andre Miller blasted a one-timer off a pass from Chris Kreider with 1:12 left in overtime to give the Rangers a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.

Kreider forced a turnover in the Rangers’ end and skated down the left wing with the puck before spinning and sending a pass to a wide-open Miller, who scored his first goal of the season. “It’s always good to get the first one out of the way,’’ Miller said. “I think we had a great team effort tonight from start to finish.’’

The Rangers won their fourth straight game — the first four of this five-game road trip, with the final game in Winnipeg on Monday — and ended the Canucks’ winning streak at three games.

And they won without scoring a goal in regular five-on-five situations. Their first three goals came on power plays — two of those in five-on-three situations — and Miller’s goal was in the three-on-three overtime format. Vancouver had one power-play goal, one shorthanded goal and an even-strength goal that was scored just as a penalty to Filip Chytil was expiring.

“A little bit of a crazy game,’’ Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “Good ending for us, but it’s just a night that was dominated by specialty teams, and some odd stuff that we had to deal with throughout the course of the game. But I liked the fact that we stayed in it and kept battling.’’

Igor Shesterkin (30 saves) was spectacular in overtime. He made six saves — including three dazzling stops, two on a save-rebound-save sequence against Andrei Kuzmenko — before the Rangers ended it.

The score was tied 1-1 entering the third period when penalties began to reshape the game.

Former Ranger Phil DiGiuseppe was called for high-sticking Mika Zibanejad, who was cut on the play, giving the Rangers a four-minute power play. But Vancouver scored a shorthanded goal when Tyler Myers picked off a pass from Adam Fox at the Canucks’ blue line, skated in on a two-on-one and lifted a shot over Shesterkin at 9:06 to make it 2-1.

The Rangers still were on the power play when Vancouver was called for having too many men on the ice, giving the Rangers a five-on-three advantage for 50 seconds. Fox tied the score when he crashed the net and redirected a feed from Artemi Panarin at 12:21.

That left the Rangers with 1:30 of power-play time left, and Zibanejad one-timed a nifty cross-ice feed from Fox after a scramble in front to put the Rangers ahead 3-2 at 13:24.

But Chytil was called for closing his hand on the puck, and just as his penalty was expiring, Carson Soucy blasted a shot from the point through traffic to tie it at 3-3 with 4:18 left.

The Canucks were playing the second game of a back-to-back after thrashing St. Louis, 5-0, on Friday, but Laviolette said at the optional morning skate: "We’re going to have to be sharp tonight. If you look at their lineup, they’re a deep team. They’re getting good goaltending. They’re playing well defensively. And they have a lot of guys that can push the pace and push numbers offensively. And so regardless of whether they played last night or not, it’s going to be a tough game and we’ll need to be sharp for that.’’

The Rangers got a golden opportunity to take the lead midway through the first period when Dakota Joshua got sent off for roughing Jacob Trouba and Filip Hronek flipped the puck over the glass, giving the Blueshirts a five-on-three advantage for 1:05. Panarin fired a shot through traffic that got by goalie Casey DeSmith at 9:18.

The goal was Panarin’s fourth of the season and extended his season-opening scoring streak to eight games, matching the streak Marian Gaborik had in 2009-10.

Vancouver tied the score in the second period after the Rangers took back-to-back penalties late in the period. First, it was a bench minor for having too many men on the ice at 14:00. Old friend J.T. Miller made that one hurt when he tipped in a shot by Hronek at 15:57, three seconds before the penalty was to expire. Then Panarin was sent off for holding at 16:23, but the Rangers managed to kill that one and escape the period tied 1-1.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.