LAS VEGAS — Already playing without their best offensive player in Artemi Panarin, who missed his third straight game while in COVID-19 protocol, the New York Rangers were dealt another major blow moments before Thursday night's game against the Vegas Golden Knights as the team announced that No. 1 goaltender Igor Shesterkin also had entered COVID-19 protocol.
Alexandar Georgiev, called on to start the game, was unable to overcome some sloppy defensive play by the Rangers, who lost to Vegas, 5-1, in the opener of a five-game road trip.
Jonathan Marchessault had two goals and former Ranger Brett Howden had his second goal in two games against his old team as the Rangers (22-9-4) saw their three-game winning streak come to an end.
The game was the first for Rangers coach Gerard Gallant at T-Mobile Arena since he was fired as coach of the Golden Knights midway through the 2019-20 season. It also was the first for forward Ryan Reaves at the arena since he was traded from the Golden Knights to the Rangers in July. Both were greeted with tribute videos and warm applause from the Vegas fans.
It also was the Rangers’ first game in Las Vegas since Dec. 8, 2019, when Georgiev started and made 38 saves in a 5-0 Rangers victory. He never came close to replicating that effort in this one.
Marchessault scored to give Vegas a 1-0 lead when he popped in a rebound on a power play at 18:35 of the first period, but the Rangers tied it 52 seconds into the second period on Chris Kreider’s 21st goal of the season. Kreider fired a shot from the top of the right wing circle that went off the catching glove of Vegas goalie Robin Lehner, making his return to the lineup after missing five games with a lower-body injury.
Vegas (23-13-1) regained the lead on a controversial goal when Mark Stone appeared to kick in a centering feed from Evgenii Dadonov at 8:14 of the period. Georgiev immediately went up to the referee and waved his arms vigorously, saying the goal should not count. The play went to video review, but the officials in Toronto ruled the goal was good, and the Rangers seemed to crumble after that. Vegas ended up with a 35-19 advantage in shots on goal.
Vegas got several two-on-one and three-on-two breaks the rest of the period, and Georgiev could stop only so many of them. Mattias Janmark made it 3-1 on one of them when he got behind Zac Jones, beat Libor Hajek and lifted a forehand shot over Georgiev at 13:08.
Howden scored at 2:11 of the third period to make it 4-1. It was his fourth goal of the season, and half of them have come against his former team. He scored the first goal in the Golden Knights’ 3-2 shootout win over the Rangers at the Garden on Dec. 17.
At the morning skate, Gallant was asked what he thought of how the Rangers had played in Panarin’s absence. His response seemed to apply to Shesterkin’s absence, too.
"Every team loses players,’’ Gallant said. "(Connor) McDavid's out for Edmonton — it happens. It's part of the game. You just don't make a big deal out of anything. You just put somebody else in there.’’
In the case of Georgiev, he was coming off a strong performance in the Rangers’ last game, a 4-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers at the Garden on Monday in which he made 33 saves. In his last five games, he had allowed only nine goals on 156 shots, a .942 save percentage.
