NEW YORK — Rangers fans heading to the Garden for Sunday night’s game against Vancouver didn’t get to see Igor Shesterkin. Coach Gerard Gallant decided to dust off Alexandar Georgiev in goal for his first start since Jan. 27.
But the fans got to see a pretty good Shesterkin impersonation. Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko stopped 31 shots – many of the point-blank, how-did-he-do-that, game-changing variety – as the Rangers lost their second game in two days, 5-2.
Georgiev, who watched Shesterkin start the previous eight games, made 29 saves. The Rangers fell behind 4-0 before scoring twice in the third period.
On Saturday, the Rangers lost, 1-0, in a hard-fought rivalry game in Pittsburgh. But Gallant was pleased with how the team played and didn’t change anything for Sunday other than the netminder.
It was the Canucks who took a 1-0 lead 3:12 into the game when former Ranger J.T. Miller fed Tanner Pearson, who beat Georgiev glove side.
Miller repeated his feat late in the first, setting up Tyler Myers for the defenseman’s first goal of the season at 19:21 to make it 2-0.
That goal came after the Canucks killed off the Rangers’ second power play of the first and immediately after Demko stopped K’Andre Miller in tight at even strength.
Henrik Lundqvist, who was working the game in-studio for MSG, said between periods: "That was a tough, tough period for the Rangers being down two goals. I'm sure they're sitting in the locker room right now and telling each other, ‘Keep doing what we're doing.’ They created so many big chances in this first period. It should be at least a tied game. Probably up a goal. Demko, that was an impressive period by him. He really stole the period for them."
The Rangers didn’t listen to The King, however. The Canucks came out hot in the second and peppered Georgiev, who was up to the task until Juho Lammikko deflected in a Luke Schenn shot at 6:06 to make it 3-0. Whatever air was in the Garden left at that moment.
Vancouver came in last in the NHL in penalty killing. But the Rangers went scoreless on their first three power plays before Vancouver even got its first chance with an extra man. And the Canucks made it count as Matthew Highmore beat Georgiev on a deflection with two seconds left on the power play at 15:16 of the second to make the score 4-0.
The Rangers, who had six shots in the second, heard boos as the period ended.
On MSG, host John Giannone asked Lundqvist what had changed.
"I think Vancouver changed," Lundqvist said. "I think they were sitting in the locker room after the first feeling a little lucky. There were up 2-0 in a period where the Rangers really created the big chances. So they came out and really set the tone the first five, six minutes, and they created a lot of chances and it was a different team. That's the biggest change I saw. The Rangers, they didn't really have a response to it in the second period."
Alexis Lafreniere made it 4-1 with his 12th goal of the season at 9:53 of the third. Ryan Strome got the Rangers to within 4-2 with his 11th goal at 14:03, leading to the first extended "Let’s Go Rangers" chant of the night.
Elias Pettersson scored an empty-netter for the Canucks with 2:09 left.
With the NHL trade deadline three weeks away, fans also got a look at a potential Rangers target in J.T. Miller.
Miller, 28, was traded by the Rangers to Tampa at the deadline in 2018. He leads the Canucks with 61 points, including a team-high 20 goals.
Chytil scratched. Filip Chytil missed his third straight game. The Rangers said the first one was because of illness, but the last two have been the coach’s choice.
