Rangers can’t hold onto lead, fall in shootout
NEW YORK — Jonathan Marchessault’s goal in the third round of the shootout was the only score of the tiebreaker Friday as the visiting Vegas Golden Knights beat their old coach, Gerard Gallant, and the Rangers, 3-2 in Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers were playing without leading scorer Artemi Panarin, who suffered a lower body injury in Wednesday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes, but they took a 2-1 lead into the third period, on goals by Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, before Dylan Coghlan’s goal at 14:44 of the third period tied it, 2-2, to force overtime. The teams traded chances in the five-minute extra session, but neither managed to score in the three-on-three session.
The game closed out a stretch for the Rangers that saw them play 10 games over 17 days. They went 6-3-1 over that stretch, to improve their record to 19-74. Now, they are off until Wednesday, and then they are off for the Christmas break after that.
Gallant insisted he had no bitterness toward the Golden Knights.
“Not now, no,” he said at the Rangers’ morning skate. “It’s two years ago. No, you move on.”
Gallant had guided the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup finals in 2018, but the team lost in the first round of the playoffs the next year, and when it got off to a 24-19-6 record in his third season, Gallant was fired Jan. 15, 2020. He was replaced by Pete Deboer, the former Devils coach who’d been fired by the San Jose Sharks a month or so earlier.
“They’re a good team,” Gallant said of the Golden Knights. “They had a ton of injuries early in the year, and a ton of guys missing, and they kept winning. And so, they’re a real good hockey team. No doubt about that.”
Gallant sent out his fourth line — featuring ex-golden Knights enforcer Ryan Reaves — for the game’s opening faceoff. Reaves, who has said many times how he enjoyed his four years in Vegas, had nevertheless told reporters at the morning skate that he would be playing his hardest against his old club, and said, “I’ll be looking for heads.”
But as far as sticking it to one’s old team, it was ex-ranger Brett Howden who got the first laugh, scoring the game’s first goal at 6:49 of the opening period, to give Vegas a 1-0 lead. Howden, who scored 16 goals in three seasons with the Rangers — one last season — whacked in his own rebound for his third goal of the season.