Rangers rally to tie, then lose to Utah in overtime in a wild home opener

Game 1 of the 2024-25 season couldn’t have gone more smoothly for the Rangers, who blew out the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Wednesday almost without breaking a sweat.

Game 2 on Saturday night at the Garden was a completely different story, a wild affair that had plenty of ups and downs and even a controversy or two.

The Utah Hockey Club, making its first visit to the Garden after moving from Arizona to Salt Lake City, stunned the Rangers, 6-5, on Clayton Keller’s second goal of the game with 54.9 seconds left in overtime. It was Utah’s third win in three games in its inaugural season.

Keller’s winner came on a strange play. He battled for the puck in the corner against K’Andre Miller and Mika Zibanejad, and when Nick Schmaltz chipped the puck to him behind the net, Keller skated out in front of the net unchecked and lifted a backhander over Igor Shesterkin for his third goal of the season.

Shesterkin made 20 saves.

“We probably should have won the game,’’ Rangers forward Chris Kreider said. “We come into the game tonight thinking that we’re going to win the game if we play the right way, have a chance to win a game. And there are stretches where we didn’t [play well]. We’re lucky to get one [point].’’

The Rangers got that point by rallying from 5-3 down late in the second period to force overtime on Will Cuylle’s goal at 12:56 of the third period. That goal was scored when defenseman Adam Fox (three assists) crashed the crease to get a loose puck and shot it off Cuylle’s shin guard and in.

The Rangers trailed 5-4 after a wild second period in which the teams totaled seven goals and engaged in two fights. Each team had a player ejected and the Rangers were called for two costly — and controversial — goalie-interference penalties.

Goals by Barrett Hayton and Artemi Panarin (two goals) had the score tied 1-1 after one period, and the madness started early in the second. From below the goal line, Jack McBain banked a puck in off Shesterkin to put Utah up 2-1 at 1:48. Panarin’s second goal, on a power play at 3:51, tied it at 2.

The Rangers appeared to take the lead on what would have been the first NHL goal by rookie Victor Mancini at 4:54. It was waved off, though, as forward Matt Rempe was ruled to have interfered with Utah goalie Connor Ingram on the play.

The Rangers challenged the ruling, and after video review, the officials ruled that Rempe was in the blue paint of the goal crease and thus prevented Ingram from getting out of his crease to challenge Mancini’s shot. With the unsuccessful challenge, the Rangers were assessed a delay-of-game penalty.

“It just didn’t look like there was contact to me,’’ Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said when asked why he challenged the call. “I understand that the back side of [Rempe’s] heels are on the line and in the blue paint. I get that. But . . . I believe you’re allowed to [skate] through the paint. You can’t interfere with the goaltender. You can’t take him out of the play.’’

Ingram’s holding penalty against Kreider negated the Utah power play, but the visitors scored during the ensuing four-on-four, with Keller getting the goal at 6:02.

Kevin Stenlund gave Utah a 4-2 lead at 4:38, but Miller got the Rangers within 4-3 when his attempted dump-in hit a seam in the boards and ricocheted into the net at 9:18 after Ingram went behind the net in anticipation of playing the dump-in.

Five seconds after that goal, a scrum in front of the Utah net led to McBain fighting the Rangers’ Adam Edstrom. Both players were ejected because the Rangers’ Sam Carrick and Utah’s Michael Kesselring already were engaged in a fight.

There was more controversy when Cuylle was called for a goalie-interference penalty at 11:27. As Cuylle, Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and Ingram raced for a loose puck in the Utah zone, Cuylle checked Sergachev down to the ice and Ingram ran into Cuylle and fell down, leading to the penalty call.

“The goalie’s 15 feet out of the net, and I don’t think either one of the players that were going for the puck were looking at the goalie,’’ Laviolette said. “For me, that was incidental contact.’’

Utah’s Dylan Guenther scored on the power play at 13:59, but Braden Schneider scored late in the second to cut it to 5-4.

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.