Rangers fall short in tight defensive battle, lose 3-1 to Oilers

Coming off perhaps their most important win of the season Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the New York Rangers couldn’t double up on their success this weekend. They followed up that big road win with a 3-1 loss at home to the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday.

The Rangers (33-29-6) had won two straight coming in, including that 4-0 victory in Columbus that vaulted them into the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. But yet again, the Rangers were unable to win a third consecutive game. They haven’t won three in a row since Nov. 14-19.

That’s not to say they didn’t play well Sunday, because they did. It was their fourth straight solid defensive showing after allowing seven goals in a loss at MSG to the Blue Jackets last Sunday. They limited the Oilers to 23 shots on goal and held superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to one point apiece.

But that was enough for the Oilers (39-24-4), who finished a four-game road trip with a 2-2-0 record by beating the New York Islanders and the Rangers — allowing one goal in each game.

Stuart Skinner was excellent in goal for Edmonton, stopping 21 of 22 shots. He bested Igor Shesterkin, who started on consecutive days for only the fifth time in his NHL career, falling to 4-1-0 in such games. He made 20 saves one night after shutting out the Blue Jackets.

McDavid, Corey Perry and Victor Arvidsson scored for the Oilers, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins assisted on all three goals. Draisaitl extended his point streak to 18 games, longest in the NHL this season, with a first-period assist. McDavid pushed his point streak to 11 games with a third-period goal.

Will Cuylle scored his first goal in seven games for the Rangers. Artemi Panari extended his point streak to nine games with an assist. Vincent Trocheck also assisted on Cuylle’s goal.

Edmonton Oilers 3 – New York Rangers 1

For all the star talent on the ice for both teams Sunday, it was a pair of greasy goals that had this game tied 1-1 after two periods of play. That’s not to say the stars weren’t generating fancy scoring chances, but in a pretty tight defensive game, the goal scoring came from the blue paint for each team.

The Oilers had the only goal of the first period, when Perry scored from his knees on the power play during a scramble by Shesterkin’s crease with 43.1 seconds remaining. It was a great effort by the rugged veteran forward, who scored his 15th goal of the season when his backhand shot tipped off Shesterkin’s glove and into the net.

Edmonton outshot New York 12-7 in the first period, including a partial break by Jeff Skinner at 18:40, when he split the defense and forced Shesterkin to make a big-time stop.

The Rangers also had some good looks in the opening period. Alexis Lafreniere found Mika Zibanejad for an in-tight one-timer with a beauty of a pass at 8:33 that was stopped by Skinner. Then at 15:28, Zibanejad played facilitator, hitting Adam Fox in full stride flying down right wing for a Grade A look that Skinner denied.

That doesn’t even include J.T. Miller ripping a right-wing shot off the post on the power play less than two minutes into the game.

In the second period, the Rangers did an excellent job shutting down the Oilers, who entered the game with a League-high 85 goals in the second period. But the Rangers held them without a goal and only allowed six shots on goal in the period, including a point-blank look by Connor Brown that was swallowed up by Shesterkin at 10:50.

By that point, the Rangers had already tied the game. Cuylle won a goalmouth battle to tap a loose puck over the goal line for his 18th goal at the five-minute mark to make it 1-1. Panarin and Trocheck assisted on the goal, which began with a 4-on-3 odd-man rush into the zone by New York.

Matt Rempe came close to giving the Rangers their first lead shortly after Cuylle’s goal. Rempe got his skate in the way of an Oilers pass in the defensive zone, then led a rush up ice that included the 6-foot-9 forward speeding between the defensemen for a partial break-in. His forehand shot was stopped by Skinner, denying Rempe a highlight-reel goal.

New York’s bottom-six had another great scoring chance at 12:48 when Jonny Brodzinski, the trailer on a 3-on-2, took a pass from Braden Schneider, but his backhand shot was snuffed out by Skinner. Brodzinski drew a penalty on the play, but the Rangers couldn’t connect on their power-play opportunity. The Rangers were 0-for-3 on the power play Sunday.

So good defensively all night, the Rangers got burned by a rare odd-man rush from the Oilers early in the third period to again fall behind. Arvidsson played give and go with Nugent-Hopkins on a 3-on-2, and his right-wing shot deflected just enough off the stick of Zac Zones to go up and over the glove of Shesterkin to put the Oilers back in front 2-1 at 6:09.

The Rangers then picked up their offensive game after falling behind, putting consistent pressure on the Oilers. J.T. Miller and Alexis Lafreniere each had excellent chances off deflections on the same shift after the eight-minute mark. Right before that, Skinner somehow kept the puck out of the net after an Urho Vaakanainen point shot nestled into the goalie’s pads and Brett Berard and Chris Kreider pushed forward trying to poke it over the goal line.

They came within inches of scoring on the power play midway through the third period during a wild scramble in front of Skinner’s net that began with an open look for Fox. Somehow Skinner got his left arm out in time while falling to the ice to rob Zibanejad on a rebound attempt.

Skinner’s timely saves set the stage for McDavid to bury the Rangers with his 25th goal at 16:35. A terrific individual effort was capped by a wicked snap shot from left wing that beat Shesterkin to the glove side. It was McDavid’s only shot on goal during the game.

With the 3-1 loss, the Rangers failed to create more distance between them and the ninth-place Montreal Canadiens, who are one point behind them, and the Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings, each of whom is two points in arrears. Montreal and Columbus each have two games in hand on New York; Detroit has one.

After a day off Monday, the Rangers are back at it Tuesday, when they host the Calgary Flames at MSG.