Shorthanded Rangers play sloppily in loss to Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS — Already playing without their best offensive player in Artemi Panarin, who missed his third straight game while in COVID-19 protocol, the Rangers were dealt another major blow moments before Thursday night’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights as the team announced that No. 1 goaltender Igor Shesterkin also had entered COVID protocol.

Alexandar Georgiev, called on to start the game, was unable to overcome some sloppy defensive play by the Rangers, who lost to Vegas, 5-1, in the opener of a five-game road trip.

"We made a lot of mistakes tonight,’’ Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. "The first 25 minutes, we played a perfect game plan to come in here and try and beat this hockey team. And after that it fell apart. We started turning those pucks over at the blue lines. We started defending in our D zone instead of playing. We started giving them time, like we were killing a penalty, and when you let them go D to D and get pucks to the net and win them battles, you’re not going to beat that team. We just looked like we lost our legs for some reason.’’

Jonathan Marchessault had two goals and former Ranger Brett Howden had his second goal in two games against his old team as the Rangers (22-9-4) saw their winning streak end at three.

The game was the first for Gallant at T-Mobile Arena since he was fired as the Golden Knights’ coach midway through the 2019-20 season. It also was the first for Ryan Reaves at the arena since he was traded from the Golden Knights to the Rangers in July. Both were greeted with tribute videos and warm applause from the Vegas fans.

It also was the Rangers’ first game in Las Vegas since Dec. 8, 2019, when Georgiev started and made 38 saves in a 5-0 Rangers victory. He never came close to replicating that effort in this one.

Georgiev was coming off a strong performance in the Rangers’ last game, a 4-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers at the Garden on Monday in which he made 33 saves. In his last five games, he had allowed only nine goals on 156 shots, a .942 save percentage.

"There was nothing he could have done. You know what I mean?’’ Gallant said. "There was just too many shots and too much pressure around the net. I thought he was fine. You know, maybe you could say, well, what’s the fourth goal [was iffy] . . . But no, he was fine. He wasn’t the issue at all. We weren’t going to win that game.’’

Regarding the late change in goalies, Jacob Trouba said, "I don’t think it changes what we do coming to the rink, or how we play, or what we’re trying to do. Honestly, we have faith in all three [Shesterkin, Georgiev and Keith Kinkaid]. All three can play really well and we’ve won hockey games with all three. So guys are dealing with this all year; guys go down, guys get hurt, guys are missing games. it is what it is. You gotta have depth, and we have that at that position. And I think we’re comfortable with any of them in net.’’   

Marchessault scored to give Vegas a 1-0 lead when he popped in a rebound on a power play at 18:35 of the first period, but the Rangers tied it 52 seconds into the second period on Chris Kreider’s 21st goal of the season. Kreider fired a shot from the top of the right wing circle that went off the catching glove of Vegas goalie Robin Lehner, making his return to the lineup after missing five games with a lower-body injury.

Vegas (23-13-1) regained the lead on a controversial goal when Mark Stone appeared to kick in a centering feed from Evgenii Dadonov at 8:14 of the period. Georgiev immediately went up to the referee and waved his arms vigorously, saying the goal should not count. The play went to video review, but the officials in Toronto ruled the goal was good, and the Rangers seemed to crumble after that. Vegas ended up with a 35-19 advantage in shots on goal.

Vegas got several two-on-one and three-on-two breaks, and Georgiev could stop only so many of them. Mattias Janmark made it 3-1 on one of them when he got behind Zac Jones, beat Libor Hajek and lifted a forehand shot over Georgiev at 13:08.

Howden scored at 2:11 of the third period to make it 4-1. It was his fourth goal of the season, and half of them have come against his former team.

"Every team loses players,’’ Gallant said. "[Connor] McDavid’s out for Edmonton — it happens. It’s part of the game. You just don’t make a big deal out of anything. You just put somebody else in there.’’

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.