This hurt the Rangers, physically and emotionally.
And how could it not, as they twice stormed back from three-goal deficits and had it all blow up in their faces during a 5-4 loss to the Panthers on Tuesday night at the Garden.
Left in the wake of this torrid affair was first the sight of Henrik Lundqvist, wearing a baseball hat and slumped over on the bench after he allowed three goals on six shots in the opening 16:47 of his 12th straight start, a performance that resulted in him being replaced by Ondrej Pavelec. Then was the news that first-line center Mika Zibanejad was a late scratch with an ambiguous “upper-body injury” that didn’t pass the test during warm-ups.
It was punctuated by a very familiar goalie-interference call — this time in reverse — that kept the Rangers from tying it late in the second, and then a ghastly turnover from Nick Holden late in the third period that resulted, first, in what could be an injury to defenseman Brendan Smith — who took a monster shot in the leg from Mark Pysyk and hardly could get off the ice — and then in Denis Malgin’s game-winning goal with 1:09 remaining.
“We tied it up,” coach Alain Vigneault said, “just can’t make the play we made at the end there.”
All of that ended the four-game winning streak for the Rangers (13-10-4), who had won eight in a row at home and 10-of-12 overall. But the small bits of sloppiness are what undid them again, reminiscent of early in the season — especially in the first period.
“It’s a huge lesson for us tonight,” Rick Nash said. “Not only a better start again, more so when you come back in a game at home, with a minute left — these are games you’ve got to take at least one point from.”
It was gruesome, really, the way Keith Yandle and the Panthers (10-12-2) were pinned in their zone for almost all of the third period, only a matter of time before shaky goalie James Reimer was going to give up the game-winner. But the Rangers cycled their way into oblivion, and Malgin got a great look from the slot and beat Pavelec to let all the air out of the Garden and the Rangers’ two-week-long momentum.
“I wasn’t able to come up with one extra save,” said Pavelec, who most recently saw game action in relief on Nov. 15 and hasn’t made a start since Oct. 28. “It’s disappointing because we battled back, and I think we deserved at least a point.”
It might have come had referees Dave Jackson and Garrett Rank allowed a Kevin Hayes goal to count with 4:11 remaining in the second period. But they called it no-goal on the ice due to interference from Rick Nash — eerily reminiscent of March 9, when then-Rangers goalie Antti Raanta was bumped in a very similar way in Carolina but that goal stood.
“I was thinking Raanta,” Vigneault said. “That’s all I can say.”
Added Nash, “I thought my skate hit him, but I thought I was [outside the crease] and he came out to my ice. But you know what, the officials made the call, and that’s the way it goes.”
It really shouldn’t have come to that, as the Rangers were down 3-0 in the first 16:47 on goals from Aleksander Barkov, Jamie McGinn and Micheal Haley.
“Three chances, three goals,” Vigneault said. “It’s a tough league.”
From there, the line of Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich took over, as David Desharnais stepped into Zibanejad’s center role and collected three assists in just over four minutes while Kreider scored twice and Buchnevich once to tie it, 4-4, with 6:32 remaining in regulation.
At that moment, it seemed like this was going to be another wild (and flawed) Rangers victory. But eventually the flaws won out, and it had to hurt in more ways than one.