Rangers stumble in third period, fall to Devils in OT

NEWARK — As difficult as the start to their season had been, the Rangers had a chance to climb into second place in the Metropolitan Division on Saturday afternoon with a win over the Devils.

But Jack Hughes scored his second goal of the game as the Devils rallied from a two-goal third-period deficit, and Damon Severson’s goal with 2:13 left in overtime gave the Devils a 4-3 win at Prudential Center.

The Rangers’ winning streak was snapped at three games.

“We set ourselves up to win till the third,’’ said Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey, who played for the Devils last season.

“They’re a good team,’’ said Vesey, who gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead 1:34 into the game. “They kept coming. But I mean, a two-goal lead after two, we’ve got to find a way to get two points.’’

The Rangers (22-12-7, 51 points) gave up a 2-0 lead and lost to the Devils, 5-3, in the teams’ first meeting on Nov. 28), but they refused to beat themselves up over another blown lead. They preferred to focus on the bigger picture, the 11-2-2 run that lifted them to third place in the division after 41 games, the midway point of their season.

“I think we found our way out of the [11-10-5] start, which is nice,’’ defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “I think that that weighed on a lot of guys. I feel like we’re a more confident group now than we were, whatever it was, 20 games ago, maybe. We’re playing better hockey. You’re not going to come in here and win every night. They’ve got good players, too.’’

The Devils (25-12-3, 53 points) burst out of the gates this season but have tailed off since. This was their first home win since Dec. 6 over Chicago. They were 0-7-1 in their previous eight home games.

Chris Kreider’s 19th goal, at 13:15 of the second, gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead. It came at the end of a dominant shift by the Rangers’ top line in which Kaapo Kakko weaved his way through the offensive zone before passing to Mika Zibanejad in the left corner. Zibanejad fed a driving K’Andre Miller for a shot that Devils goalie Vitek Vanecek saved, but Miller managed to whack the rebound over to Kreider at the back post and he put it in.

A power-play goal by Jesper Bratt at 8:28 of the third period started the Devils’ comeback. Hughes collected the ricochet of a blocked shot and scored his second goal at 10:32 to tie it.

Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said Bratt’s goal changed the game. “They got that power-play goal and you knew they were going to get some momentum,’’ he said. “I mean, they had some great chances in the first two periods, but once they got that power-play goal in the third, they started to carry that momentum a little bit.’’

Vesey opened the scoring for the Rangers when he took a one-touch pass from Alexis Lafreniere, cut across the slot and fired a wrist shot past Vanecek’s blocker pad.

It was Vesey’s seventh goal and his first since signing a two-year contract extension Wednesday.

The Devils pressed for the equalizer and ended up outshooting the Rangers 19-9 in the first period. They had a golden chance to tie the score when they had a five-on-three power play for 1:33 late in the period. But Igor Shesterkin, the Rangers’ All-Star Game representative, kept the hosts off the board, making a number of difficult saves to preserve the lead heading into the first intermission.

Julien Gauthier made it 2-0 at 3:28 of the second. He took a nifty drop pass from Adam Fox and drove to the net, then tucked a forehand shot around Vanecek for his sixth goal.

Hughes got the Devils on the board when he picked off a pass from Barclay Goodrow in the neutral zone, sped past Ben Harpur and lifted a shot over Shesterkin at 9:24 of the second for his 25th goal.

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.