Rangers open road trip with 3-1 loss to Kings, fail to gain in playoff race

By time the New York Rangers took to the ice at Crypto,com Arena on Tuesday night, they knew that the Montreal Canadiens had already lost their game earlier in the evening. And with a chance to move past the Canadiens into the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, the Rangers were stymied by the Los Angeles Kings in a 3-1 loss to begin a three-game California road trip.

It was a massive wasted opportunity for the Rangers (34-32-6), who lost for the fourth time in their past five games and are down to 10 games left in the regular season. Though they remain one point behind the Canadiens, Montreal has two games in hand, as do the Islanders, who are tied in points with the Rangers.

Another terrible start by the Rangers didn’t help, but wasn’t the reason they lost. New York was out-shot 8-2 in a scoreless first period and actually opened the scoring early in the second period on a J.T. Miller goal. They didn’t get another goal as Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper finished with 23 saves.

Igor Shesterkin started his eighth straight game in goal for the Rangers and made 30 saves, including 13 in the third period. The Rangers have scored one goal four times in Shesterkin’s past eight starts.

Kevin Fiala scored twice for the Kings (40-21-9) and now has 28 on the season, second most on the team. Playing in his 700th NHL game, Phillipp Danault also scored for the Kings, who extended their franchise-record winning streak on home ice to 15 games (12-0-3).

The red-hot Kings have won four in a row and nine of their past 10 overall.

Los Angeles Kings 3 – New York Rangers 1

In what’s largely been the norm recently, the Rangers couldn’t get going offensively in the first period, managing just two shots on goal. This after they recorded one shot on goal the first period Saturday during their 5-3 win against the Vancouver Canucks.

For what it’s worth, Brennan Othmann and Will Borgen recorded the only shots on goal for New York against Kuemper in the opening 20 minutes. The main reason for that was the Rangers inability to gain clean entry into the Kings zone. In fact, more often than not, the Rangers were stymied in the neutral zone and were turned back the other way, having to defend the Kings counter attack.

It didn’t help that the Rangers committed numerous turnovers in their own end when under duress from the heavy Kings forecheck.

The good news for the Rangers was that Shesterkin was again excellent in goal. The scoring chances were 13-1 in favor of the Kings, including 5-0 in high-danger opportunities, per Natural Stat Trick. But Shesterkin stopped everything that came his way, officially credited with eight saves in the first period, including stopping Warren Foegele twice point blank and making a showy glove save on a Danault snap shot.

The Rangers came out with much better jump to start the second period, and surpassed their first-period shot total in just 2:08. Their third shot of the period also gave them a 1-0 lead.

After Kuemper made a strong save on a Braden Schneider drive through traffic, Alexis Lafreniere couldn’t get the rebound on net but the puck did slide to Miller, who chipped a shot toward the net. It appeared Kuemper made an unreal sweeping pad save along the goal line. But the situation room in Toronto reviewed the play and determined the puck completely crossed the goal line and Miller had his 18th goal of the season, ninth since being traded to the Rangers on Jan. 31.

The Rangers continued to press their advantage, looking like a completely different team offensively than the one that played the first 20 minutes. Kuemper played the role of Shesterkin in the second though and didn’t allow another goal, making 13 saves in the period.

And the Kings rewarded their goalie by scoring twice on the power play to take a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.

Fiala scored his team-high 10th power-play goal on an easy tap in at 10:54. Andrei Kuzmenko’s first cross-ice pass was blocked by a diving K’Andre Miller but the puck came right back to him and Miller slid out of the play. That gave Kuzmenko a lane to zip a pass to Fiala, who was behind Schneider to score the tying goal.

Not long after the goal, Matt Rempe and Tanner Jeannot squared off at center ice, but before any big punches were thrown, Rempe slipped and lost his balance, and the linesmen stepped in to end the fight.

Then at 17:48, Danault buried a power-play rebound of Trevor Moore’s shot off Shesterkin’s pad to make it 2-1. The Kings had kept the puck in at the right point on one attempted clear by the Rangers and then Chris Kreider gave the puck up trying to clear it again along the half boards.

The Rangers were awarded a power play of their own 29 seconds after Danault’s goal when Joel Edmundson interfered with Vincent Trocheck on a rush up ice. With a chance to tie the game, the Rangers instead short-circuited their power-play opportunity when Adam Fox tripped Quinton Byfield, who drew his third penalty in the first two periods.

Before intermission arrived and with the teams skating 4-on-4, each had an odd-man rush and failed to score. First, it was J.T. Miller’s pass being picked off by a back-checking Byfield in the Kings end. Then at the other end right before the buzzer, the Kings missed the net on a 2-on-1 rush. Shesterkin alertly batted the puck away after it caromed off the back boards and into his slot right before the clock hit double zeroes.

The Rangers got another power play early in the third period, at 4:25, and Trocheck had a pair of prime scoring chances but was denied each time in tight by Kuemper. When the penalty expired, Adrian Kempe jumped out of the box and had a break in on left wing, ripping a slap shot from the circle that Shesterkin denied with his blocker.

Kuemper preserved the one-goal lead with a diving save through traffic to rob Trocheck again at 12:19, just seconds after he made two clutch stops during a scramble, including a point-blank beauty on Will Cuylle.

The Rangers pulled Shesterkin for the extra attacker with 1:55 remaining to play and Fiala spun a backhand shot into the empty net with 15.1 seconds left to ice the win.

With two days before their next game in Anaheim against the Ducks on Friday, all the Rangers can do is watch and hope that the results of their competitor’s games continue to break their way.