The New York Rangers suffered a frustrating 5–4 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, surrendering a 3–0 lead at Madison Square Garden.
A critical moment came late in the third period when defenseman K’Andre Miller’s turnover led directly to Thomas Harley’s game-tying goal, making it 4-4 and eventually sending the game to overtime.
Despite the misstep, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette kept Miller on the ice, a decision he defended after the game instead of punishing him for his error.
“There’s things that go wrong on every goal,” Laviolette said postgame, per Jonny Lazarus. “And so there were definitely things that we could have done better inside of that goal as well. There’s a couple of breakdowns on that particular instance.”
Miller attempted a risky pass into the slot under pressure, which Sam Steel intercepted. Harley converted the giveaway into the game-tying goal just two passes later with less than three minutes left in the final period.
The Stars completed their comeback in overtime, with Jamie Benn scoring the winner on a power play.
23-year-old Miller has had a challenging season scoring just seven points and posting a minus-6 rating over 34 games.
“You come out of the gates, you’re up 3-0 at home [and] you don’t win a hockey game,” Laviolette said. “You did enough wrong defensively to not be happy with it.
”The first period, we gave up way too much off the rush. It came down to puck decisions, and we didn’t make the right ones.”
The Rangers, now 18–20-2, missed a crucial opportunity to build momentum following their win over the Blackhawks on Sunday.
New York won two or more games in a row for the last time in mid-November when the Rangers strung three consecutive victories from Nov. 14 through Nov. 19.
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