WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The first week, and the first road trip of the season are in the books for the Rangers, and though the Blueshirts weren’t able to go undefeated, they still can feel pretty good about themselves after completing this trip in Winnipeg.
Looking to start the season 3-0 for the first time since 2015-16, the Rangers instead suffered their first loss Friday night, falling to the Jets when Sam Gagner got behind the Blueshirts defense and beat goaltender Jaroslav Halak with 4:25 remaining to break a tie and send the Jets on their way to a 4-1 victory.
Mark Scheifele scored two goals for the Jets, the second coming on a power play with 1:27 remaining to serve as insurance. Kyle Connor added an empty-net goal with 19.9 seconds left.
The Rangers finished the two-game trip to Minnesota and Winnipeg 1-1 and return home with a 2-1 record. They play on Monday at Madison Square Garden against old friend Ryan Strome and the Anaheim Ducks.
The Rangers trailed 1-0 after two periods before Dryden Hunt, playing his second game in place of the injured Vitali Kravtsov, tied it at 3:55 of the third. He took a cross-ice pass from Vincent Trocheck, kicked the puck into shooting position and lifted a shot over Connor Hellebuyck’s shoulder and into the top of the net.
At that point, it seemed inevitable that the Rangers, who started slowly but seemed to be taking over control in the final two periods, would give themselves a chance to win. But Gagner got behind the defense and found himself one-on-one against Halak, making his first start of the season. Halak made a save on the first shot, but Gagner backhanded in his own rebound.
Playing a back-to-back for the first time figured to be a test for the Rangers, coming off a pair of excellent performances in their first two games, wins Tuesday at Madison Square Garden against Tampa Bay and Thursday in Minnesota against the Wild.
“Definitely,’’ Adam Fox admitted when asked about that. “Just playing and then traveling the next day and playing again, I think it's all part of getting back into that rhythm … The back-to-back is going to be a challenge, but it's your first time doing that in a while.’’
As could have been expected, the Rangers looked a step slow early in the game as Winnipeg, playing in their season opener, outshot the visitors 5-1 in the early going. Fortunately for the Rangers, Halak, making his Rangers debut, was solid and kept the Jets at bay until his teammates could find their legs.
Winnipeg did score first when Nikolaj Ehlers beat Ryan Carpenter to retrieve a dump-in from Scheifele behind the net, and then came out from behind the net and backhanded a pass to the top of the slot, where Scheifele skated onto it and whipped it over Halak’s catching glove at 10:29. But other than that, Halak was fine, making 30 saves.
The Rangers were outshot 13-10 in the first period but began to pick things up in the second, outshooting Winnipeg 21-7. But while the volume of shots was great, only a few of them were quality chances.
Chris Kreider had one of those late in the period with the Rangers on a power play. Mika Zibanejad’s diagonal feed to Kreider, standing at the right goalpost, hit Kreider in the upper body and dropped to the ice, but by the time Kreider got his stick there to whack at the puck, Hellebuyck (40 saves) was able to stop it.
