Rangers' defense collapses in loss to Kraken at the Garden

For the first period-and-a-half Sunday against the Seattle Kraken, the Rangers were playing free and easy. It was as if the trade of captain Jacob Trouba on Friday had removed the tension that had been hovering over them for several weeks.

It was all good until, somehow, things took a wrong turn.

Three Seattle goals in the final 5:54 of the second period and another 36 seconds into the third sent the Rangers to their seventh defeat in nine games. They lost to the Kraken, 7-5, before a stunned crowd at Madison Square Garden that booed the home team.

“If you go back and look at it, the [Seattle scoring] chances, all of them were the goals,’’ a clearly unhappy Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “At those points in the game, we needed to defend better than what we did. We had the pieces in place and it just was a little bit too loose, and that looseness cost us.’’

Oliver Bjorkstrand had two goals and two assists for Seattle (14-14-1), which wrapped up a four-game East Coast trip. Eeli Tolvanen had a goal and two assists.

Backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer, starting because No. 1 goalie Joey Daccord was ill, made 31 saves. Grubauer entered the game with a 1-8 record.

In their second game since Trouba was traded to Anaheim, the Rangers had started off flying, and goals by Reilly Smith, Filip Chytil and Vincent Trocheck had them comfortably in front at 3-1 before the game was 25 minutes old.

Seattle then scored five unanswered goals to take a 6-3 lead before third-period goals by K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere briefly got the Rangers and the Garden crowd back into the game.

Yanni Gourde’s empty-net goal with 1:46 left squashed any hope of a Rangers comeback.

“You get up and you get a little bit too comfortable,’’ Smith said. “I think that was just what happened in the second period. I think you can sometimes look for easy offense a little bit too much, and they got a couple chances. They ended up in the back of the net. Caught us a little bit off guard, probably.’’

The loss dropped the Rangers to 14-11-1. They are 2-2 on the five-game homestand, which concludes Monday against last-place Chicago.

A day after Igor Shesterkin signed his eight-year, $92 million contract extension, the goaltender’s pregnant wife was in labor, so backup Jonathan Quick started in goal. Dylan Garand, called up from AHL Hartford, served as his backup.

Quick gave up six goals on 21 shots. He has allowed 15 goals in his last three starts after giving up only four in his first four starts this season.

Smith gave the Rangers the lead with his second goal in as many games at 3:38 of the first period. In the period, the Rangers outshot Seattle 12-6. According to Natural Stat Trick, they led the Kraken 8-4 in scoring chances and 4-0 in high-danger scoring chances.

Bjorkstrand’s first goal, on the power play at 1:46 of the second, tied it at 1-1, but 1:04 later, Chytil took a pass from Kaapo Kakko and scored from the top of the slot to put the Rangers ahead. Trocheck’s power-play goal at 4:47 made it 3-1 and the Rangers seemed to be in control.

But goals by Brandon Tanev and Tolvanen 1:28 apart tied it 3-3 at 15:34 of the period. Bjorkstrand’s second goal, with 33.8 seconds left in the period, put Seattle in front.

Vince Dunn’s goal 26 seconds into the third made it 5-3 and the Rangers were shaken.

Trocheck was asked which goal, Tolvanen’s in the final minute of the second period or Dunn’s in the first minute of the third, was more damaging.

“They’re both bad,’’ he said. “The first two minutes and the last two minutes of every period are the most important. And you never want to give up goals in those time periods.’’

Notes & quotes: Connor Mackey was called up from Hartford to serve as the seventh defenseman . . . With Daccord unavailable, the Kraken signed Michael Matyas to an amateur tryout agreement to dress as the emergency backup. The 33-year-old Calgary native works in New York City. He played 14 games for Alaska-Anchorage of the WCHA from 2013 to 2015, according to Elite Prospects. 

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.