Mika Zibanejad didn’t lead with the officiating when evaluating the New York Rangers’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, instead stressing the need to control what the Rangers can control. It didn’t take much prodding, though, for him to express his frustration.
“Like, really? Zero power plays and you don’t call that?” he said when asked about what looked like a Mitch Marner trip on Matthew Robertson in overtime. “It stings now. We could probably look at other things that we could’ve done better not to get to that point, but I thought that one was pretty obvious.”
Zibanejad wasn’t alone in his feelings. The non-call occurred as Robertson crossed the red line less than a minute into overtime. Marner swiped for the puck but instead took the Rangers defenseman’s legs out from under him. New York captain J.T. Miller raised his arm, expecting a penalty call. Goalie Jonathan Quick started skating to the Rangers’ bench, thinking one was coming and New York would be able to send an extra attacker onto the ice.
“The trip in overtime?” coach Mike Sullivan said about the non-call. “You guys can be the judge.”
New York, which had no power plays over the course of the game, took the lead with a pair of goals in the second period and held it nearly until the end of regulation. With 1:58 left, Will Borgen and Brett Howden got tangled up in front of the Rangers bench, and both were sent to the penalty box with roughing minors.
“There was nothing going on,” an exasperated Sullivan said after the game, and Rangers color commentator Brian Boyle (a former New York forward) expressed disdain for official Chris Lee’s handling of the situation on the MSG broadcast.
Though Vegas didn’t get a power play, the matching penalties led to the game being played at four-on-four rather than the typical five-on-five. So when Vegas pulled goalie Carter Hart, it had a five-on-four.
“It’s kind of like a power play for them,” Vincent Trocheck said.
Stretches of six-on-five are difficult to defend, but five-on-four leads to more space for offensive players to maneuver. The Rangers also couldn’t clear the puck without fear of icing like they would have been able to do on a normal penalty kill.
“I think the coincidental minors had a huge implication,” Sullivan said. “There’s a big difference between a six-on-five and a five-on-four in trying to defend. … Give Vegas credit, they played hard in the third, but I thought our guys did as well. I thought we were defending the lead hard. For the most part we were doing our best to defend our scoring areas in the good areas of the ice. We felt on the bench that we were in control, the way we needed to be. So it’s disappointing.”
With 52 seconds left — a little more than a minute after the Borgen-Howden call — Tomáš Hertl knocked home a loose puck in front of the net, tying the game. J.T. Miller nearly knocked the puck out of the zone before the goal but it skipped out of his reach.
An irate Sullivan screamed at the officials from the bench after the Hertl goal.
Howden and Borgen started overtime in the penalty box but were released two seconds in, so the period essentially started at four-on-four rather than three-on-three. If Marner had been called for tripping, the Rangers would’ve had a four-on-three power play with a chance to win the game. Instead there wasn’t a whistle until Hart saved a Zibanejad shot with 18 seconds left. In total the teams played 4:40 of the overtime period at four-on-four.
Finally back at three-on-three, the Rangers had an offensive zone faceoff with 18 seconds to go. Howden won the draw, though, and Jack Eichel burst past Artemi Panarin and up the ice as soon as he did. Shea Theodore ricocheted a stretch pass off the boards and onto Eichel’s stick. The star center deked Quick on the breakaway, then finished with his forehand to give Vegas the win.
“I feel like we deserved a better fate, but at the end of the day, they won the game,” Miller said. “It’s a fine line.”
The Rangers gave up the game-winner after a potential penalty went uncalled. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Other notes
• New York had a dreadful first period. Howden scored 36 seconds into the game after a Vladislav Gavrikov turnover, and the Golden Knights generated plenty of offense throughout the period. Howden hit a post and Stone had a look from the slot off a Noah Hanafin shot that ricocheted to him off the end boards. He threw his head back in frustration after Quick made the save. The Golden Knights’ third line had an odd-man rush that seemed likely to lead to a goal, but Brandon Saad missed the net. The fourth line had a dominant shift at the end of the period, too, with Kaedan Korczak hitting the base of the post.
In total, Vegas had 73.48 percent of the five-on-five expected goal share in the first period, according to Natural Stat Trick. But New York responded well in the second, controlling play and getting goals from Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafrenière, who zinged a Zibanejad pass past Hart.
“We played a really good, unbelievable second period,” Miller said. “Set ourselves up. Defended well in the third period.”
Over the full game, the Rangers narrowly led in expected goals at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.
• Quick played well in his first game back from a lower-body injury. Both Miller and Zibanejad mentioned how well he did keeping Vegas off the board in the first period. In total he saved 26 of 29 shots.
•Lafrenière had a two-point night after having only three points the 12 games prior.
“The goal he got was a goal-scorer’s goal, but it was more than just that,” Sullivan said. “I thought he was around the net. He was winning puck battles. He was in the battle areas. He was challenging people by hanging onto the pucks, and that’s what he’s capable of. He’s a real good one-on-one player, and we’ve been trying to encourage him to challenge people down under the hash marks and force people to have to take the puck away from him, because he’s big and strong and he’s got really good puck skills. And I thought tonight was one of the better nights with respect to that.”
• Former Rangers prospect Brett Howden, traded after the 2020-21 season, has settled into a home with Vegas. He was on their 2023 Stanley Cup team, logging 10 points in 22 postseason games, and had a 40-point season the next year. On Sunday he was on a line with captain Mark Stone and Mitch Marner.
In return for Howden back in 2021, the Rangers got pending unrestricted free agent Nick DeSimone — whom they didn’t sign — and a fourth-round pick. That pick turned into rookie Noah Laba, who has emerged as a regular in the Rangers’ lineup this season.
• Sam Carrick and Keegan Kolesar got tangled up along the boards, and the two ended up dropping the gloves. It was Carrick’s fourth fight of the year. My preseason prediction that he’d lead the Rangers in fights is looking like a good one.
“Sam is the epitome of a warrior out there,” Trocheck said. “Every time he drops the gloves it fires me up.”