RANGERS CAN’T CLIP THE WINGS
Fail to bury chances after Hank’s misplay
THE RANGERS will rue this one. They were dictating so much of the play and generated a plethora of high-quality scoring chances that they shouldn’t have been deadlocked with the Red Wings through two periods.
Instead it was tied as Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard kept turning away pucks, and then 59 seconds into the third the Red Wings scored what turned out to be the winner in the Rangers’ 2-1 loss when Henrik Lundqvist was stripped of the puck behind his own net.
“It’s funny. In a game like this the first question is about the goal, but obviously that’s the difference,” Lundqvist said after his counterpart Howard frustrated the Rangers (2-2) by making 32 saves, many of them on Grade-A opportunities.
“It’s a game we should put away before we hit 40 minutes with the amount of chances we had.”
Indeed. The Rangers held a 74-44 advantage in total attempts but were 0-for-4 on the power play, which included a stretch of 4:59 in the second period when the Red Wings were called for three straight minor penalties.
On the winning goal, Lundqvist went to play the puck behind his net when Luke Glendening swooped in to steal it and feed Drew Miller for the go-ahead tally before Lundqvist could get back into position. Lundqvist, who made 16 saves, said he didn’t see Glendening coming until the last second, when he tried to flip the puck. “It came down to that play where for the most part when I do that play I find our ‘D’ on the backside,” he said. “It happens. It’s just tough when it’s the difference in the end here. It’s tough to accept because we played really well. We had enough chances to be up probably four goals.”
It seemed like that’s how many they’d get after Mika Zibanejad scored just 1:09 into the game, tipping in new dad Ryan McDonagh’s AP point blast for his second goal of the season. Chris Kreider earned a secondary assist, giving him a four-game assist streak.
Thomas Vanek tied the game at 6:15 of the second, tipping in Frans Nielsen’s shot with 14 seconds remaining on a power play while the Rangers couldn’t capitalize on several breakaways or close-range shots. Kevin Hayes missed an open net at 8:57 of the first.
“I don’t think we can play much better,” Lundqvist said. “It just came down to putting the puck in the net.”
Just as they did in St. Louis on Saturday, the Rangers come away with a loss despite imposing their will and feeling encouraged about their overall direction.
“The way our guys are playing right now and competing on the ice, we’re doing a lot of the things that are gonna permit us to win games,” Alain Vigneault said.
BLACK AND BLUE: Dan Girardi (groin strain) might skate on his own Thursday. Pavel Buchnevich (back spasms) remains day-to-day.