K'Andre Miller's last-minute goal gives lethargic Rangers win over Kraken

In his first season as Rangers coach, Gerard Gallant has been relentlessly positive in talking about his team. Win or lose, he has rarely, if ever, said a negative word about any of his players or his team’s effort as a whole.

But Gallant couldn’t find a whole lot of positives in Sunday’s 3-2 win over the expansion Seattle Kraken at Madison Square Garden.

"I think it was awful,’’ he said. "I’m not happy. Today was disappointing. To watch that after two [straight]losses — I expect a lot more of my group and didn’t see much of it.’’

The Rangers blew 2-0 leads in each of the previous two losses, and it happened again Sunday. Yanni Gourde’s power-play goal with 1:08 left in the third period tied it at 2-2.

Defenseman K’Andre Miller’s goal with 33.7 seconds remaining stole the victory for the Rangers after a dismal performance. The goal, a wrist shot from just above the right circle after Mika Zibanejad won a faceoff cleanly back to him, was Miller’s third of the season.

"Not bringing our best game tonight, just finding a way to get two points is the biggest thing,’’ Miller said.

He would never have had a chance to play hero if goaltender Igor Shesterkin hadn’t been magnificent. Shesterkin made 40 saves as the Rangers were outshot 42-24, and he was the only player Gallant had any interest in praising.

"Excellent,’’ he said. "He gave us a chance to win, and that’s what he does.’’

Whether their effort deserved to be rewarded or not, the victory allowed the Rangers (29-13-4, 62 points) to temporarily pull back into a tie for first place in the Metropolitan Division with the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes subsequently beat the San Jose Sharks to move two points ahead of the Blueshirts, who have played four more games than Carolina has.

Playing a second straight game without reigning Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox, the Rangers went up 2-0 on goals by Zibanejad, on the power play at 11:46 of the first period, and Alexis Lafreniere, off a rebound off the post after Zibanejad’s shot at 4:23 of the second.

But it was an unconvincing two-goal lead. The Kraken (14-26-4) outshot the Rangers 14-6 in the first period. The Rangers were charged with five giveaways in the period to Seattle’s one.

Things didn’t get any better in the second. The Kraken made it 2-1 at 7:17 when Jared McCann took a return pass on a three-on-two break and squeezed a shot through Shesterkin for his 18th goal. And when Seattle finished the second period with a 25-12 advantage in shots on goal, everything seemed to point to the Kraken tying the score at some point.

The victory gave the Rangers a sweep of the season series with the Kraken, whom they beat, 3-1, in Seattle on Halloween. In both games, though, the Rangers were largely unimpressive against the first-year team and probably ended up winning only because Shesterkin was very good.

Gallant said he could see his team’s performance slipping over the last three games, and he felt the need to call out the players.

"They play hard,’’ he said of the Kraken. "They send four lines at you. You know, I’m not disrespecting their team; I’m talking about my team tonight. And we just weren’t hard enough.

"We’re better than that. We talked about it two weeks ago, about coming in here and saying, ‘Oh, we won a big game tonight against a real good team [Toronto].’ But you’ve got to do it every night. You don’t do it once in a while, and pick your games, and pick your spots.’’

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.