NEW YORK — In their first game back from a four-game West Coast trip, the Rangers finally seemed to get the breaks they’ve been seeking for weeks.
After finding themselves on the wrong end of three separate video reviews over the first two periods Saturday, the Rangers kept playing, kept going to the net, got a couple of breaks and built themselves a three-goal lead against the struggling Edmonton Oilers, losers of seven of their last 10 games.
But a pair of goals by defenseman Evan Bouchard and another by forward Dylan Holloway in the third period stunned the Rangers and Leon Draisaitl’s power-play goal with 2:02 left in regulation time sent them to a 4-3 loss in Saturday’s matinee at Madison Square Garden. To make matters worse for the Rangers, they lost defenseman Ryan Lindgren in the third period after he was crunched by Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
Alexis Lafrenière, who’d scored the Rangers’ first goal, at 2:20 of the first period, had committed the roughing penalty that gave the Oilers the fateful power play.
Goals 33 seconds apart by Chris Kreider and Julien Gauthier late in the second period had seemed to break open a tight game and put the Rangers, wearing their Lady Liberty jerseys for the third time this season, in the drivers’ seat. But a hooking penalty to K’Andre Miller early in the third period gave the Oilers a power play, and Bouchard scored his first goal of the season at 4:39 to get the Oilers on the board.
