WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Rangers coach Alain Vigneault at least owes a beer to his video coordinator, Jerry Dineen.
Vigneault’s team seemed to give up the first goal just 24 seconds into the game against the Jets on Sunday afternoon, when Tyler Myers beat goalie Henrik Lundqvist with a slap shot from the right circle. But Dineen called down and was adamant Winnipeg was offside coming into the zone.
Vigneault challenged, and won, taking the goal off the board.
The Jets did manage to score on their next shot to take a 1-0 lead, but the Blueshirts came back and won the game, 3-1.
“Jerry Dineen made a great call on the first denied goal on the offside,” Vigneault said. “It was hard for us to see on the bench. I thought even though they scored after that, we sort of settled down after that, we started making more plays with the puck, more efficient.”
Vigneault is now 4-for-6 on challenges this season.
Backup goalie Ondrej Pavelec is set to miss two-to-three weeks with sprained MCL in his knee, suffered in the first period of Friday’s 4-3 win over the Flames. Vigneault said this was supposed to be Pavelec’s game, going against an organization that he played for over his previous 10 season in the league. The Jets even had a video tribute ready for him that they had to shelve.
Backing up Lundqvist was 22-year-old Alexandar Georgiev, who was called up from AHL Hartford on Saturday and has never played a NHL game.
Jimmy Vesey returned from a three-game absence due to a concussion and scored the game-winning goal off his arm.
Vesey was hurt when he was nailed with a headshot from the Predators’ Filip Forsberg in Nashville on Feb. 3, drawing no penalty but earning Forsberg a three-game suspension. He returned to fully participate in practice Saturday, and then played 13:54 on a line with David Desharnais and Jesper Fast on Sunday.
“He played well,” Vigneault said. “Didn’t have a lot of practice time. Obviously looking for his legs and his hands there. And I thought he worked real hard.”
The rookie defensive duo of John Gilmour and Neal Pionk remained together, with Gilmour getting three shots on net in seven attempts over 12:45 of ice time, while Pionk was a plus-1 in 15:11.
Captain Ryan McDonagh missed his second straight game with his lingering upper-body issue, and did not make the trip, which heads to St. Paul, Minn., for a game against the Wild on Tuesday. In his stead, Fast wore the third ‘A’ on his sweater for the second straight game, along with alternate captains Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello .