A LITTLE LATE
The Rangers scored four straight goals in the third period — but instead of celebrating a victory at the Garden on Tuesday night, they suffered a 6-4 defeat to the Blue Jackets.
That’s what shoddy goaltending can do to a team, and once again, the culprit was Henrik Lundqvist, who struggled coming out of the All-Star break, much as he did earlier in January following the Rangers’ bye week.
This time, Lundqvist surrendered three goals on just 16 shots before he was yanked in the second period.
“I know I need to be better,” Lundqvist said in an uncharacteristically brief session with the media after the game. “That third goal is a killer. As a group, we responded really well in the third. Especially the third goal bothers me. It’s back to work [Wednesday] to get better [and] improve.”
Coach Alain Vigneault was at a loss to explain why Lundqvist was off his game again, but had a similar solution as the goalie.
“We came off a sequence where he played three really strong games and then we’re off four or five days,” Vigneault said. “The only thing he can do — and the only thing we can do as a team — is get back to work.”
Unfortunately for the Rangers, Lundqvist’s replacement — Antti Raanta — was no better, as he allowed two more goals in the second and surrendered three on 10 shots.
By then, the Rangers were down 6-0 and en route to their fifth loss in their last six games at MSG.
So while the outburst in the third — which included three goals in less than four minutes to cut the deficit in half — gave the Garden faithful something to cheer, it ultimately didn’t mean much in the end.
“I don’t know what the deal is,” Ryan McDonagh said. “It’s been a staple here since I’ve been a part of this team: It’s been tough [for opponents] to play here. Usually we feed off the energy of the crowd and have a good start. Right now, it’s not going the way we want.”
Vigneault defended his team’s start, and he had a point. The Rangers opened strong, going on the power play just 11 seconds into the game and peppering Columbus backup goalie Joonas Korpisalo with shots, but they were unable to score.
That failure quickly came back to bite the Rangers when Seth Jones fired the Blue Jackets’ first shot of the game from the blue line. And with Columbus winger Josh Anderson — and Rang- ers defenseman Nick Holden — partially screening Lundqvist, the puck went in and the Rangers faced another early deficit just 3:53 into the first.
It was the eighth time the Rangers have given up a goal on an opponent’s opening shot — the sixth for Lundqvist. Jones scored twice on the night.
The Rangers had won three of four before the break prior to the showdown against their former coach, John Tortorella, who coached his first game since skipping the All-Star Game to be with his family’s sick dog.
The Blueshirts will be back on the ice in Buffalo on Thursday before returning to The Garden for four straight starting Sunday.
The Rangers finally broke through at 2:51 of the third, when Jimmy Vesey scored his 12th on the season. Michael Grabner added another just over two minutes later and Chris Kreider stuffed one home at 6:12.
Mika Zibanejad and Derek Stepan had chances to get the Rangers within two goals midway through the period, but Korpisalo stopped them and by the time Kevin Klein made it 6-4, there was just over a minute left in regulation.
“They made us pay early on and won the game, even though we made a push at the end,” Vigneault said.