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 Wednesday almost without breaking a sweat. Game 2 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.
In the end, the Utah Hockey Club, making its first visit to the Garden after moving from Arizona to Salt Lake City, stunned the Rangers on a goal by Clayton Keller, his second of the game, with 54.9 seconds left in overtime. Utah’s 6-5 win was its third win in three games in its inaugural season.
Keller’s winner came on a strange play, where he battled for the puck in the corner against K’Andre Miller and Mika Zibanejad, and when his teammate, Nick Schmaltz, chipped the puck to him behind the net. Keller skated out in front of the Rangers goal, unchecked, and lifted a backhander over Igor Shesterkin for his third goal of the season.
“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 happened 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 had trailed, 5-4, after a wild second period that saw the teams combine to score seven goals, engage in two fights, each have a player ejected, and the Rangers get called for two costly — and controversial — goalie interference penalties.
Goals by Barrett Hayton and Artemi Panarin, his first of two, had the score tied 1-1 after one period, but 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 briefly appeared to take the lead on what would have been the first NHL goal by rookie Victor Mancini, at 4:54. But the referee waved it off immediately, ruling that forward Matt Rempe had interfered with Utah goalie Connor Ingram on the play.
The Rangers challenged the ruling, but 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 backside of [Rempe’s] heels are on the line and in 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 having gone 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, and both players were ejected because the Rangers’ Sam Carrick and Utah’s Michael Kesselring were already engaged in a fight.
There was more controversy when Cuylle was called for a goalie interference penalty at 11:27. He, Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and Ingram all were racing for a loose puck in the Utah zone and Cuylle checked Sergachev down to the ice, and then 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.’’
Miller took a high sticking penalty at 12:37, giving Utah a 5-on-3 advantage. The Rangers killed the 5-on-3, but Dylan Guenther scored on the 5-on-4, at 13:59, to put Utah up by two goals.
Finally, with 2:01 remaining in the period, Braden Schneider scored his first goal of the season to bring the Rangers within 5-4.
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.
