BEAT GOES ON
Rangers drop seventh in row at home
IT IS now seventh hell for the Rangers, seven straight games on Garden ice they have lost, the latest Wednesday night to the Islanders, 3-2, after holding a one-goal lead going into the third.
And once again their struggling penalty killers cost them big time as the Rangers allowed two power-play goals to lose the lead. They’ve now allowed at least one power-play goal in each of their last eight games, surrendering a total of 10 power-play goals during that stretch, and though they may have had bounces go against them on both third-period goals Wednesday, they can’t let the game slip away the way it did, dropping their record to 25-4 when leading after two periods.
“I think the PK, special teams didn’t produce what we needed in the third period,” said Rick Nash, who scored a go-ahead goal in the second period. “You get a 2-1 lead in your own building, these are the games that you have to close, there’s no question.” Andrew Ladd scored the winner with 7:22 left in the third for the Islanders, desperately fighting to stay within reach of the second wildcard spot. Thomas Greiss made 34 saves.
The Rangers (45-25-4) were deserving of their lead through two periods. They got a power-play goal from Mats Zuccarello early in the second before Anders Lee tied it less than a minute later, but they had the better of the play. When they had a power play 59 seconds into the third they missed one shot and had another blocked, not getting any on goal, before the Islanders (34-26-12) netted their two, the first a pinball goal off two players’ skates.
“It definitely hasn’t been good enough,” Nash said of the penalty killing. “We’ve got a great game plan, we’ve got a great pre-scout. It’s a matter of the guys on the ice worrying about our own end, getting the job done, outworking their best players, and we haven’t done that in the last few here.”
Antti Raanta made 25 saves in his seventh straight start ahead of Henrik Lundqvist’s return this weekend in California from a strained hip muscle suffered on March 7.
It will be a three-game getaway for the Rangers, the ultimate road warriors of the NHL at 26-9-1. But they have won only half of their 38 home games this season and have just three left to put together a complete performance and try to spark some life into the Garden, which as usual was far too quiet on Wednesday.
“What we have to do is try to solve the riddle,” Derek Stepan said. “I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t understand why we can’t seem to get it done on home ice. It is certainly something we need to fix, but at this point there’s nothing we can do about the past seven games. We have to find the answer and get it done before the playoffs come around.”