K’Andre Miller’s goal with 33.7 seconds left rescued the Rangers from a weak performance and provided them with the winning margin in a 3-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken Sunday at Madison Square Garden that ended a two-game losing streak.
Yanni Gourde’s power-play goal with 1:08 remaining had tied the game at 2, but Miller ripped a wicked wrister from above the right circle past Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer to give the Rangers the victory.
Goals by Mika Zibanejad on the power play and Alexis Lafreniere had put the Rangers up 2-0, but Jared McCann’s second-period goal got the expansion Kraken on the board and made the Rangers sweat. Seattle outshot the Rangers 42-24 and only the heroics of goaltender Igor Shesterkin kept the Rangers in the game long enough to pull out the victory.
The victory allowed the Rangers (29-13-4, 62 points) to at least temporarily pull back into a tie for first place in the Metropolitan Division with the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes played later on Sunday against the San Jose Sharks.
Forward Filip Chytil missed his fourth consecutive game for the Rangers with a lower-body injury, though Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said the 22-year-old is getting better. The coach did not rule out Chytil possibly returning for Tuesday’s game against the Florida Panthers at the Garden. That will be the Rangers’ final game before the All-Star break.
