Rangers tie it in third but lose lead minutes later in loss to Maple Leafs

After the Rangers were thoroughly outplayed but still managed to steal a win on Sunday in Pittsburgh, Mika Zibanejad happened to be walking by when coach Peter Laviolette was asked at his postgame news conference how he viewed what had just happened.

“Two points,’’ Zibanejad chirped as he walked past.

On Friday, in the Rangers’ first game at Madison Square Garden in nearly three weeks, things went the other way for Zibanejad and his team. This time the Rangers played great defense and great offense, created scoring chances, piled up offensive zone time and outshot the Maple Leafs 35-17.

And lost, 3-2.

“This one stings,’’ Zibanejad said. “In the other games, I don’t really care if we have 15 shots just as long as we win. Honestly. The other two games are way better. We get points. This? Yeah, in the long run, maybe. But I don’t care about the long run now. I only care about tonight. And we didn’t get the two points. And that’s what hurts.’’

With 23 games remaining in the regular season, the Rangers (29-26-4, 62 points) remain four points behind Detroit and Columbus for the two wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference.

The Rangers tied it at 2 on a shorthanded goal by Will Cuylle, set up by Zibanejad, at 3:47 of the third period, but it didn’t stay tied for long. Toronto’s Matthew Knies scored at 6:21 when he drove to the net and tapped in a feed from Auston Matthews.

Laviolette described the game as “frustrating.’’

“It seemed like [the puck] was on our stick most of the night, it was in the offensive zone,’’ he said. “I thought we defended pretty well . . . There wasn’t a lot of chances [for Toronto]. There wasn’t a lot of opportunity. And when we were in the offensive zone, there was looks. We had good tips, redirects, screens, traffic. They blocked a lot of shots. I thought their goalie made some big saves.

“We were hunting the entire night and just didn’t get rewarded for it.’’

In their first game without Adam Fox, who went on injured reserve Wednesday with an upper-body injury, the Rangers tried to cover for the loss of their power-play point man by putting together a first power-play unit that had five forwards and no defensemen on it.

But the unit failed on all three opportunities, including one with 10:35 left when William Nylander was sent off for a high-sticking penalty against Ryan Lindgren.

On their first opportunity in the second period, the Rangers iced the puck at one point. With 17 seconds left in that advantage, when they tried to make a line change to get the second unit on, they were called for a penalty for having too many men on the ice.

“There’s always a little bit of a feeling-out process,’’ Laviolette said. “I think over time, if you get a chance to work on it more, I think you’ll see more continuity with it.’’

Zibanejad was called for tripping Matthews 18 seconds into the game and Oliver Ekman-Larsson blasted a one-timer past Igor Shesterkin at 1:47 to put the Rangers in an early hole. It was the 21st time in 59 games this season in which the Rangers, have allowed a goal within the first five minutes.

But Zibanejad redeemed himself by tipping in a shot from Will Borgen to tie it at 1 at 13:08. It was Zibanejad’s 13th goal of the season and third in the last five games.

Nylander scored on a funky-looking play 52 seconds into the second period. The puck was cleared into the Toronto zone and two players, Mitch Marner and Pontus Holmberg, went to the Maple Leafs’ bench for a change. A couple of Rangers decided to change at that point, too.

But Holmberg jumped back on the ice just as Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe corralled the puck in his own end, turned and whipped it up ice. The pass hit Nylander in stride and Toronto had a three-on-one break. Vincent Trocheck hustled back and got his stick on Nylander’s stick, but the puck slid off Nylander’s skate and off the post. As Shesterkin tried to cover it, he inadvertently knocked the puck over the goal line.

Notes & quotes: Chris Kreider missed his third straight game with an upper-body injury. Arthur Kaliyev and D Matthew Robertson were healthy scratches . . . There were boos for the Canadian anthem when it was sung before the game.

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.