WINNIPEG, Manitoba _ Mika Zibanejad is starting to show that he isn't just on a hot streak. He's starting to look like he's becoming an elite NHL player.
He's just not elite enough to carry the Rangers to a victory over one of the NHL's elite teams, the Winnipeg Jets.
Zibanejad had two goals, the first in the first minute of the second period to get the Rangers on the board, and the second in the first minute of the third, on a power play, to get them into their first lead of the game, but it didn't last as the Rangers fell, 4-3, in the first game of their four-game road trip.
Jets defenseman Joe Morrow's first goal of the season, off a mad scramble at 5:22 of the third period, tied the score at 3 and Andrew Copp got the winner at 7:21, finishing a centering feed from Mason Appleton to boost Winnipeg (36-18-3).
The Rangers (24-24-8) will practice at home Thursday and go back on the road Friday at Buffalo against the Sabres.
Although the Rangers allowed 56 shots in Sunday's 4-1 win over Toronto, Quinn stayed with the same lineup, meaning he dressed seven defensemen for the second straight game.
"I think we've managed it better," Quinn said of the 11-forwards-and-seven-defensemen alignment. "Obviously, when you do something a little bit more frequently, you get more comfortable with it and you learn as you go along. But listen, the bottom line is we want to dress our best 18 skaters, and right now, we think seven of them are defensemen. There's no rule that says you have to dress 12 and six."
Quinn has said consistently he doesn't prefer to dress seven defensemen, but, coming out of the All-Star break, when he wanted to bench forward Pavel Buchnevich, he opted to play seven against Philadelphia. Then, after sitting Tony DeAngelo for two games for disciplinary reasons, and then sitting Neal Pionk for two games, the coach went with seven defensemen when he returned Pionk to the lineup Sunday against Toronto.
Winnipeg led 2-0 after one period, as Mark Scheifele scored two goals _ his 29th and 30th _ at 4:58, and 18:36. The Jets dominated play in the period and outshot the Rangers 19-10, meaning the Rangers had allowed 75 shots over a four-period span.
But the Rangers turned things around in the second period, which started quickly when Zibanejad banged a shot from the right boards off the far post and in for his 24th goal of the season just 38 seconds into the period. The Rangers outshot Winnipeg 17-9 in the period, and they tied the score with 40.6 seconds left on a power-play goal by Buchnevich. With Winnipeg's Dustin Byfuglien off for elbowing Jesper Fast _ Fast stayed down for a while and went to the locker room after the play _ Ryan Strome fired a shot that Buchnevich deflected over Connor Hellebuyck for his 10th goal of the season.
