CALGARY, Alberta – The road has been good to the New York Rangers this season. But their second four-game trip ended with a whimper, and not the bang the first one did, as they closed it Saturday night with a 6-0 loss to the Calgary Flames in the Scotiabank Saddledome. It was their first shutout loss of the season.
Johnny Gaudreau had two goals and an assist and Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and three assists to do most of the damage for Calgary (7-1-3). For the Rangers, the loss, coming on the heels of overtime losses to Vancouver Tuesday and Edmonton Friday, dropped them to 1-1-2 on the trip, and an overall record of 6-3-3. They returned home after the game and will face the 10-0-1 Florida Panthers Monday at Madison Square Garden.
To make matters worse, the game might not have been the only thing the Rangers lost Saturday. Having gotten rugged Ryan Reaves back from injured reserve for the game, they subsequently lost third-line center Filip Chytil to injury after just one shift against the Flames.
Chytil left 2:16 into the first period after he collided with teammate Sammy Blais in center ice and stayed down for several moments. He left the ice and went straight to the locker room and did not return. Last season he missed five weeks, and 14 games, with a hand injury.
The Flames opened the scoring on a power-play goal by Sean Monahan, who banged in a pass from Tkachuk at 16:00, with Kevin Rooney serving an interference penalty. Calgary took a 2-0 lead midway through the second period, at 9:15, nine seconds after a penalty to Patrik Nemeth expired.
Calgary made it 3-0 at 11:19 when Noah Hanifan mishit a slap shot from the left point and the puck came bouncing in toward goaltender Igor Shesterkin. Somehow the puck slipped through, and Tkachuk whacked the puck off Shesterkin, creating a rebound that Gaudreau tapped in for his first goal.
Gaudreau’s second goal made it 4-0 at 6:42 of the third period. Milan Lucic and Tkachuk tacked on goals to complete the scoring.
