Rangers suffer shootout loss to Red Wings
Rangers center Filip Chytil reacts after his miss clinched the win for the Red Wings in the shootout at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Credit: Brad Penner
The way things have been going for the Rangers this season, these are the types of games they would be expected to win.
Yes, they fell behind early and entered the third period down by a goal Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. But the way they have played, and the way goaltender Igor Shesterkin has played, it seemed like a lock that the Blueshirts would end up with yet another comeback victory.
But this time they didn’t. This time they rallied in the third period to force overtime and made it to their second straight shootout, only to lose, 3-2, to the Detroit Red Wings.
Pius Suter beat Shesterkin in the sixth round of the tiebreaker and Filip Chytil was stopped by former Islander Thomas Greiss, who improved his career record against the Rangers to 6-0-1.
After a crazy, back-and-forth overtime, Detroit’s Lucas Raymond scored on the first shot of the shootout. Mika Zibanejad scored on the first Rangers shot to tie it at 1-1, but the next eight shooters missed before Suter scored to win it.
The Rangers nearly won it in the fifth round when Ryan Strome, after a nice move, had an open net but shot wide from a tough angle.
"The second half of the game, I liked our game, but the first half we came out real flat, obviously, and Detroit took it to us pretty good,’’ Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. "It should have been more than 1-0 [Detroit’s lead after the first period], but Shesty played real well.
"The second half we played well, well enough to get back in. We probably got the one point that we deserved, but no more.’’
Detroit (23-22-6) opened the scoring 2:18 into the game when a shot by defenseman Troy Stecher bounced off the leg of Rangers defenseman Zac Jones and got past Shesterkin.
"I think after the first period, the first 10 minutes, we settled in,’’ Rangers forward Barclay Goodrow said. "We played our game, but we still need to work on starting games better. Right from the beginning, we were chasing from behind. It’s hard to play like that.
"I think if we played the first 20 [minutes] like we did the last 40, we would have put ourselves in a better spot.’’
The Rangers (31-14-4) turned up the pressure in the second period but seemed to hurt themselves by overpassing the puck at times.
They tied it 1-1 when defenseman K’Andre Miller — who had scored in the ninth round of the shootout to give the Rangers a 2-1 win over the Bruins on Tuesday night — used his speed to skate around the back of the net for a wraparound goal against Greiss (37 saves) at 12:18 of the second period.
The Red Wings untied the score 90 seconds later when Dylan Larkin banged in a rebound off the end boards at 13:48 for his 26th goal.
The Rangers outshot Detroit 18-12 in the second period but couldn’t get more than Miller’s goal.
In an unfortunate sequence, as the Rangers were buzzing around Greiss, Adam Fox went to the net and was knocked to the ice by a defender just as Alexis Lafreniere was shooting the puck toward the wide-open right side of the net. The puck hit Fox in the back.
But the Rangers eventually tied it at 2-2 at 11:51 of the third period when Zibanejad one-timed a pass from Fox on their only power play of the game. It was Zibanejad’s 19th goal.
Shesterkin — the hero Tuesday, when he was taken out of the game by the concussion spotter with 40.5 seconds left in the overtime before returning to play in the shootout — made 31 saves in regulation and overtime.
Perhaps his best stop came against Larkin with 40.1 seconds left in regulation when he snatched a slot shot out of the air with his catching glove.
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.
