Rangers score 2 short-handed goals but are manhandled by Blue Jackets in 7-3 loss

The New York Rangers were somehow blown out on home ice in a game when they scored a pair of short-handed goals 42 seconds apart on the same penalty kill, but still lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-3 on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

Let that sink in for a second.

Then mix in that those short-handed goals tied the game 3-3 early in the second period against the team directly ahead of them in the tight Eastern Conference playoff race. It was right there for the Rangers. Instead, they allowed four unanswered goals at even strength, with Adam Fantilli finishing off a hat trick for the Blue Jackets.

To make matters worse, this brought a sour finish to a highly-anticipated — yet ultimately disappointing — weekend against teams ahead of them in the playoff race. The Rangers blew a pair of two-goal leads Saturday, including one in the third period, before losing to the Ottawa Senators 4-3 in overtime.

The Rangers (31-27-6) have now lost three in a row (0-1-2) and remain ninth in the East. They are two points behind the Blue Jackets (31-24-8) for the first wild card; the Blue Jackets have a game in hand, and the teams will play again Saturday in Columbus. The Rangers trail the Senators (32-25-5) by one point for the second wild card but have played two more games.

Though strong on the PK, the Rangers were outscored 7-1 at even strength Sunday and were 0-for-4 on the power play. Jonathan Quick didn’t get much help from his teammates and stopped just 20 of 27 shots. It was the second time the Rangers allowed seven goals in a game this season.

Braden Schneider and Chris Kreider scored the shorties, the first time the Rangers scored twice on the same PK since March 5, 2014, against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Artemi Panarin also scored, extending his goal streak to five games, tying his career high.

Fantilli recorded the second hat trick of his young career and Mathieu Olivier scored twice for the Blue Jackets, who had lost their previous two games and are 1-1-1 against the Rangers this season. Dante Fabbro had a goal and an assist, and Zach Werenski continued his splendid season with two more assists, giving him 68 points in 62 games. Justin Danforth also scored for Columbus and Daniil Tarasov finished with 32 saves, 17 in the third period.

Columbus Blue Jackets 7 – New York Rangers 3

Following a fairly low-event first period, a dizzying sequence of momentum swings in a wild second period found the Rangers trying to dig out of a 5-3 hole after 40 minutes of play.

Despite allowing the first goal of the game at 5:56 of the first period, when Danforth tapped in a sweet pass by Werenski after the Blue Jackets star danced around Rangers defenseman Carson Soucy, the Rangers had the edge in play. They outshot the Blue Jackets 9-4, out-chanced them 10-3 in all situations (per Natural Stat Trick) and scored the tying goal with 28.1 seconds remaining in the period.

After the fourth line forced an icing call against the Blue Jackets, the top line went to work on the next face-off with less than a minute to play in the period. Vincent Trocheck sent the puck back to Alexis Lafreniere, who in turn fired ahead, with his shot seemingly headed wide of the net. But Panarin, stationed in the left circle, stuck out his stick and redirected the puck past Tarasov for his 28th goal of the season, tying the score 1-1.

The Blue Jackets took a penalty seven seconds later, and momentum was all on the Rangers side. Their second power play of the game carried into the second period, but they couldn’t tack on another goal after Panarin’s tally.

That led to the next momentum swing in the game. Fantilli scored twice in a span of 26 seconds to silence the Garden crowd and give the Blue Jackets a 3-1 lead. The 20-year-old went top shelf over Quick’s glove on a 2-on-2 rush at 3:07, shortly after the teams returned to even strength. Then he slammed home a Dmitri Voronkov pass from behind the goal line for his 20th goal of the season at 3:33.

It was another example of the Blue Jackets winning a puck battle in the offensive zone at even strength, something they did over and over on Sunday. Schneider was the defenseman in this instance who lost the puck battle and the Rangers found themselves down 3-1.

Less than two minutes later it was nearly 4-1, but Rangers defenseman Will Borgan made a sensational arm save lying in the blue paint with Quick out of the play.

At 6:13, Will Cuylle was assessed a holding minor, and what followed was a stunning swing in momentum in the home team’s favor. The Blue Jackets fell asleep on the power play and left Schneider wide open after turning the puck over in their own end. Schneider wired a short-handed goal past the glove of Tarasov at 6:54 after a quick feed from Trocheck.

Schneider’s fourth goal of the season and first in 16 games put the juice back in the building. Just 42 seconds later, Kreider helped blow thew roof off the Garden when he scored his fourth shortie of the season to tie things up 3-3 at 7:36.

Kreider started the play with a takeaway at the Rangers blue line. That sent him and Mika Zibanejad off on a 2-on-0 short-handed rush. The Rangers forwards played catch with the puck skating in on Tarasov before one last pass from Zibanejad was buried into the back of the net by Kreider, his 18th goal being New York’s League-leading 13th short-handed this season.

The Blue Jackets managed not to allow another shortie before their power play ended, then resumed their strong play 5v5 and shifted momentum back in their favor. Werenski made another gorgeous feed to set up Olivier’s go-ahead goal at 17:03. Alone in the middle, he redirected Werenski’s pass into the cage for his 13th goal to make it 4-3.

Columbus won another race to a loose puck behind the Rangers’ goal line and that paid off with another goal at 18:47. James van Riemsdyk passed to Sean Kuraly, who found Fabbro open between the circles. The defenseman zipped his fifth goal stick side past Quick to make it 5-3.

The Rangers nearly answered with 25 seconds to play in the period, but Panarin’s quick one-timer was denied by Tarasov.

Down by two, the Rangers started fast in the third period and had a crucial power play at 5:57 when Ivan Provorov was called for delay of game when he flipped the puck over the glass. The Rangers pressed and had two good scoring chances — one each for Zibanejad and Panarin — but Tarasov was up to the challenge. After the power play, the Rangers fourth line buzzed and Jonny Brodzinski had a pair of good looks. But to no avail.

Olivier then the backbreaker when he went hard to the net and the puck bounced up high off a Rangers defenseman and into the net at 10:17 to make it 6-3.

Fantilli was left all alone in the slot to bury his third goal of the game and finish off the hat trick at 11:51 after a hard-working shift in the Rangers’ zone.

The Rangers got another power play at 12:41 after Luke Kunin boarded Trocheck for the initial penalty. Borgen then jumped in to fight Kunin and when was all said and done, the Rangers had a power play even though Borgen received an instigator penalty for starting the fight.

Rangers coach Peter Laviolette pulled Quick to make it a 6-on-4 power play but they couldn’t score despite some prime chances.

All that was left was the booing from the fans who remained until the bitter end.

Next up for the Rangers is a three-game road trip that begins against the League-leading Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday.