Rangers' mistakes prove costly in loss to red-hot Winnipeg Jets at Garden

Going up against the hottest team in the NHL Tuesday night at the Garden, the Winnipeg Jets, the Rangers knew they were going to have to pick up their own game. They knew if they played the way they have played for most of the past three weeks, they’d get embarrassed.

They did play better. In fact, they were noticeably better than they have been recently. They weren’t hemmed into their zone as much as they’d been of late, and they had more shots on goal and fewer turnovers than their opponent.

But Winnipeg, which entered as the first team in NHL history to win 14 of its first 15 games, beat them anyway. The Jets, who are 15-1-0, may have turned the puck over more than the Rangers did, but they took advantage of the Rangers’ miscues, including turning three unfortunate turnovers by Mika Zibanejad into goals and riding those to a 6-3 victory.

Winnipeg has won seven in a row.

“I honestly thought we gave them a good game,’’ Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider said. “I think there were just a few too many odd-man rushes, and those happen. A couple bad bounces, but I thought most of our game . . . I thought we were pretty solid.’’

“I think we played a pretty good team game,’’ Artemi Panarin said. “Everyone tried hard, hit people and then, yeah, we just chipped in the pucks. We worked for that, won the battles, made a lot of shots too. Just, sometimes it happens. I can’t say we were the worst team tonight, but they won the game. They’re a good team.’’

Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who came into the game with the best goals-against average (1.83) and save percentage (.935) of qualified goalies, made 33 saves to improve to 12-1-0. He won the Vezina Trophy last season.

Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who’d been pulled from his last game (6-1 loss to Buffalo last Thursday), made 27 saves and fell to 6-4-1.

The Rangers (9-4-1) nearly scored on the game’s opening shift when Vincent Trocheck dropped a pass for Chris Kreider, whose shot was saved by Hellebuyck and might have gotten a piece of the post, as well. But on the next shift, Winnipeg took the lead after Zibanejad tried to pass to Panarin, who turned the wrong way. The puck went straight to Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey, just inside the Rangers’ blue line. He set up Mark Scheifele in front for his first of two goals to give the Jets a 1-0 lead 57 seconds in.

The Rangers weren’t fazed, though. Will Cuylle’s fifth goal of the season, a rebound effort off a shot by Schneider (two assists), tied it 1-1 at 13:07.

The teams exchanged power-play goals in the second period — Gabriel Vilardi for Winnipeg at 8:58, and Alexis Lafreniere for the Rangers at 12:51 — making it 2-2, before Zibanejad’s second turnover led to the Jets taking the lead for good.

Zibanejad was in the offensive zone this time when he whiffed on a pass to Lafreniere, and former Ranger Neal Pionk took the puck and passed it to Kyle Connor, who quickly turned up ice and scored on a shot off a rush to make it 3-2 at 16:03 of the second.

Zibanejad then was stripped of the puck from behind in the neutral zone by Vilardi early in the third, and that led to Scheifele’s second goal, at 1:08, to put Winnipeg ahead 4-2.

Rangers coach Peter Laviolette refused to point a finger at Zibanejad, who finished an unsightly minus-4, along with his linemates, Panarin and Lafreniere, and defenseman K’Andre Miller.

When asked if he thought Zibanejad was pressing, Laviolette avoided the question.

“I can’t speak for Mika and where he’s at,’’ he said. “I know that we count on Mika. He’s an impact player for us, and so . . . sometimes when you are pushing offensively to try and make things happen things can go the other way for us, like they did for us tonight as a group.’’

If there was a bright spot for the Rangers, the third line, with Cuylle, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, and the third defense pair, with Schneider and Zac Jones produced two goals — Cuylle and one by Kakko at 1:40 of the third, 32 seconds after the second Scheifele goal.

Kakko’s goal, which pulled the Rangers within 4-3, didn’t spark a comeback, though.

One-time Ranger Vladislav Namestnikov scored at 13:08, collecting the rebound off the back glass from a shot by Nikolaj Ehlers and reaching around to tuck it into the net behind a diving Shesterkin, to make it 5-3. Connor scored his second goal of the night on a long shot into an empty net at 19:40 to make it 6-3.

Notes & quotes: The Rangers won 33 of 51 faceoffs (67%), led by Trocheck, who won 16 of 21 (76%) . . . D Adam Fox played a game-high 25:28. Trocheck was second with 24:55 . . . Panarin has a point in 13 of 14 games this season . . . Tuesday was Military Appreciation Night at the Garden.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.