NEW YORK — Alexandar Georgiev got back in the goal for the first time since Jan. 30 and the end result was the same as his last game — an overtime loss to a team wearing black and gold.
The score was 3-2, this time, and the opponent was the East-leading Boston Bruins, who got the game-winner on a breakaway goal by Brad Marchand at 36 seconds of the five-minute, 3-on-3 extra period. Georgiev was celebrating his 25th birthday.
The game got to overtime because Kevin Rooney scored a controversial goal to tie it, 2-2, after Anders Bjork took advantage of a mixup on the Rangers defense to walk in from the low slot and give the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 9:00 of the third period. Rooney got the goal back at 11:22.
Ryan Lindgren fired a rising shot from the left point and Brendan Lemieux, battling in front, raised his stick high to deflect the puck down, behind Boston goalie Tuukka Rask. Rooney, standing behind the pile of bodies, knocked the loose puck over the goal line. It was ruled a goal, but the play was reviewed on video before being allowed to stand.
It was the second favorable video review call the Rangers got in the game. Earlier in the period, a shot by Jake DeBrusk had gotten behind Georgiev, hit the crossbar, then the post, then bounced out. Review determined the entire puck had apparently not crossed the entire goal line, and thus there was no goal. It was a great birthday gift for Georgiev.
There’s been no question how much Mika Zibanejad’s all-around play and leadership have meant to the Rangers over the last three seasons. But with the 27-year-old Swede’s struggles to put points on the board early in this season, coach David Quinn admitted at some point he will have to consider dropping his No. 1 center in the lineup.
"That's something we would do, and he and I talked about that yesterday,’’ Quinn said before the game Wednesday. "I mean, he certainly has given himself an opportunity to play through some stretches of — that maybe he's not on the top of his game. But at some point in time, those opportunities, and that credit's going to run out.’’
That point was not Wednesday, as Zibanejad started the game between his regular linemates, left wing Chris Kreider and right wing Pavel Buchnevich, and they played in their regular spot at the top of the lineup. And Zibanejad had lots of energy and plenty of chances, getting foiled by Rask with the blocker on a short-handed breakaway try late in the second period, and then by Rask’s glove on a backdoor tap-in try a shift or two later.
Quinn did change up his power play, which had been slumping and entered the game 2 for 23 in its previous seven games. Artemi Panarin shifted to the second unit, with No. 1 draft pick Alexis Lafreniere taking his spot on the first unit, alongside Zibanejad, Kreider, Buchnevich and Adam Fox. The new-look second unit, with Panarin, Ryan Strome, Kaapo Kakko, Brendan Lemieux and Jacob Trouba, was on ice for the short-handed goal by Chris Wagner that tied the score, 1-1, at 9:41 of the second period.
Panarin turned the puck over at the Bruins’ blue line and Wagner had a half-step on him the entire way down the ice before beating Georgiev for his second goal of the season.
The Rangers had opened the scoring in the first period, when Julien Gauthier scored his first NHL goal at 13:50, crashing the net to chip in a pass from Lemieux.
