Rangers lose again in overtime as Vegas' Jack Eichel scores winner with eight seconds left

After losing in overtime to the NHL’s best team, the Colorado Avalanche, on Saturday, the Rangers all spoke positively about how well they’d played and how they could feel good about the effort they’d put in and the resilience they’d showed.

About 30 hours later, when they again lost in overtime to one of the NHL’s elite teams, the Vegas Golden Knights, they again spoke positively about the way they’d played. But there was a tinge of frustration in their voices that hadn’t been there a day earlier.

Whereas they scored a last-minute goal to force the overtime on Saturday, on Sunday, it was the opposite. They held the lead entering that final minute before allowing the tying goal by Tomas Hertl with 51.3 seconds left in regulation.

Then they lost on a last-minute goal in the overtime. A lost faceoff in the offensive zone turned into a breakaway by Jack Eichel and the winner with eight seconds left that handed them a second straight 3-2 overtime loss.

“Yeah, yeah,’’ center Vincent Trocheck said when asked if Sunday’s loss felt different from Saturday’s. “It’s never fun to give one up late and to let them tie the game, and then another one late in overtime.

“The one late in the game, it’s kind of like a power play for them. I feel like we had a couple opportunities to get the puck out and didn’t. It’s a tough one, and then the one in overtime. [We just have] to make sure that we’re paying attention to detail whenever their best players are on the ice.’’

Hertl’s tying goal came with goalie Carter Hart pulled for the extra skater, but because there had been coincidental roughing penalties called against the Golden Knights’ Brett Howden and the Rangers’ Will Borgen, the teams were skating four-on-four. Pulling the goalie gave Vegas a five-on-four skater advantage as opposed to the usual six-on-five in that situation, and that made a difference, Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said.

“There’s a big difference between a six-on-five and a five-on-four and trying to defend it,’’ Sullivan said. “So we’ve got to do a better job, obviously, in that situation and kill it off.’’

Sullivan didn’t like the call by referee Chris Lee and said he didn’t get any explanation as to why penalties were called on the two players. Asked if he was frustrated by that, he said, “What gave it away?’’

Sullivan also clearly was unhappy that no call was made when defenseman Matthew Robertson was brought down by Vegas’ Mitch Marner.

“The trip in overtime?’’ Sullivan said. “You guys can be the judge.’’

But despite all that, the Rangers (15-12-4) still managed a point, still feel as if they played well and still can take pride in the fact that in their last four games, they played four playoff teams from last season — Dallas, Ottawa, Colorado and Vegas — and went 2-0-2, picking up six of a possible eight points.

And they did it without defenseman Adam Fox, who is on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury.

They are playing some of their best hockey of the season at the moment and are 5-1-2 in their last eight games.

“Back-to-back days, we played two of the best teams in the league. I feel like we played them pretty tight,’’ Trocheck said. “Coming out of it, I feel pretty positive.

“I’m pretty positive about our game and where it’s trending right now. I feel like we’re playing the right way a lot of nights and holding some pretty good players in check. So as long as we continue to do that, I think we’ll be all right.’’

Said Sullivan, “When you leave the rink, throw the score out, throw all the numbers out, all the analytics, whatever you want to call them .  .  . When you get in the car on the ride home, you get a feeling about the experience you just went through. And that feeling doesn’t lie.

“And so I think players know. They know when they play well, they know when they compete hard. They know when they left it out there, and I think they’ve got that feeling tonight.’’

Notes & quotes: Jonathan Quick started in goal after coming off IR with a lower-body injury. He played his first game since Nov. 22 and made 26 saves . . . Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere scored the Rangers’ goals in the second period. Howden, a former Ranger, scored the game’s first goal 36 seconds into the first period . . . J.T. Miller played in his 900th game .  .  . Rookie F Jaroslav Chmelar replaced Taylor Raddysh in the lineup.

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.