Rangers dig early hole, Igor Shesterkin allows 6 goals in loss to Maple Leafs

After they lost two games in a row for the first time this season last week, the Rangers probably thought they’d corrected a bunch of the mistakes and tightened up their poor defensive play that had been plaguing them of late after they beat the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday.

But then the Toronto Maple Leafs came to Madison Square Garden Tuesday, and suddenly, all that loose defensive play seemed to come back in the first 20 minutes of the game. The Rangers fell behind by three goals in the first period, and though they seemed to turn things around in the second, ultimately, they never were able to dig out of the early hole. The Leafs thumped them, 7-3, handing them their third loss in the last four games.

“I think the score, maybe, with an empty-netter there, doesn’t look great for us,’’ defenseman Adam Fox said. “But I thought we fought back later on. And yeah, I mean, it wasn’t a great game, and [it was] mistakes that bit us for sure.’’

The seven goals allowed were a season-high for the Rangers, who fell to 19-7-1. Goaltender Igor Shesterkin gave up six of them, and has now allowed 15 goals in his last three games, all losses.

“I don’t know what I need to say to you,’’ Shesterkin said when asked where his game is right now. “Everybody was all good, except the goalie.’’

The Rangers were without defenseman K’Andre Miller, who missed the game for what the team called “personal reasons.’’ They trailed 2-0 in the first 5:07 of the first period on goals by Auston Matthews (who had two on the night) and defenseman Conor Timmins.

Blake Wheeler, who had two goals for the Rangers, scored at 5:42 to cut the deficit to 2-1. But goals by Calle Jarnkrok and Mitch Marner (his first of two) put Toronto ahead 4-1 by the 15:41 mark.

At that point, it seemed reasonable to wonder whether Rangers coach Peter Laviolette might replace Shesterkin with Jonathan Quick to start the second period. But the coach decided to stick with Shesterkin (23 saves), and he said he never considered pulling him.

“I think that some of it was on us and some of it was some nice goals [by Toronto],’’ Laviolette said. “And I thought [Shesterkin] also, through the course of the game, made some big saves. There were some big toe saves on the back door . . . So no, I didn’t think about it.’’

Matthews, who entered tied for the NHL’s goal-scoring lead with Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov at 19, put the Leafs ahead at 3:52, when he scored No. 20 on a delayed penalty against the Rangers. William Nylander skated right through the Rangers’ 1-3-1 neutral zone trap, blowing by Erik Gustafsson and splitting Wheeler and Vincent Trocheck to create a two-on-one with Matthews against Jacob Trouba. He passed to Matthews, who shoveled it in.

Timmins then beat Shesterkin with a shot from the right point that the goalie didn’t see until too late, and Toronto had control of the game.

The Rangers took back some of the control when they got two goals late in the second period, one on a power play by Mika Zibanejad at 16:30 and Wheeler’s second, on a shot from the wing off a pass from Zibanejad, to pull the Rangers within 4-3.

On Zibanejad’s goal, Artemi Panarin got the primary assist, which gave him 700 career points. Trouba got the second assist on Wheeler’s second goal, and that gave him 300 points.

But a penalty to Gustafsson gave Toronto a power play early in the third period and Marner scored his second goal just seven seconds into the man advantage to put Toronto up 5-3. Matthews’ second goal made it 6-3 at 17:11 and Leafs forward David Kampf added an empty-netter with 1:27 left to close the scoring.

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.