DETROIT — If there’s a lesson in this one it’s that average is not going to get it done, at least not for the Rangers.
Playing what Rick Nash called “an OK road game,” the Rangers blew two one-goal lead before eventually losing in a shootout, 3-2, to the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Friday night. The defeat takes the Rangers into the Winter Classic outdoors at Citi Field on Monday with a lukewarm feeling, somewhat appropriate for how this up-and-down season has gone.
“When you’re coming on the road, those are the games you want to close out,” Nash said. “It was an OK road game, but we just didn’t close out.”
The Rangers (20-13-5) had all the chances to close it out, but they could never distance themselves. So it brought them to the skills competition, in which former Islander Frans Nielsen was the only player to score, beating Henrik Lundqvist through the legs in the first round while Jimmy Howard stopped all three shooters he saw to give the Red Wings (14-16-7) the extra point.
“At least we get a point here,” said Lundqvist, who made 33 saves and who was a big reason his team was able to kill off two penalties that bridged the end of the third period and overtime. “It would have been tough to lose the game like that, on their power play.”
Lundqvist was outstanding in his first start in six days, having watched his understudy, Ondrej Pavelec, shut out the Capitals in a 1-0 shootout win Wednesday night in the first game back from the three-day Christmas break. Lundqvist kept the Rangers in it when they were sluggish over the first 10 minutes of the game, but he wanted badly to get that extra point.
“It’s tough to lose another one in the shootout. It’s two in a row for me, so obviously try to be a little better,” Lundqvist said. “It’s hard to score. We have guys that had opportunities tonight, and it’s too bad. I have to be a little bit better, too.”
If three saves in the shootout wasn’t enough, Howard also stopped a penalty shot by Brady Skjei with 2:38 remaining in the rather tepid 3-on-3 overtime period. It was just one of those games in which the Rangers couldn’t get over the hump.
“We had enough chances, especially in the third, to win this one,” Lundqvist said. “It was tough to give up that second goal. I felt we had the momentum, we had the chances.”
That second goal came off a Boo Nieves turnover just inside his defensive blue line, as Henrik Zetterberg turned around and was able to get his own rebound and beat Lundqvist, a fellow Swede, to tie it, 2-2, at 7:05 of the second. Nieves’ line, with Vinni Lettieri making his NHL debut and scoring the go-ahead goal at 2:35 of the third, was good for most of the night — but that one play made a big difference.
“It’s going to happen,” Nash said, “it’s a hockey play.”
What the Rangers needed was to build on Lettieri’s goal, especially when they had a power play at 3:51 of the third period. And despite peppering Howard with a handful of shots, they couldn’t beat him and couldn’t take what would have been a definitive two-goal lead.
“It was our inability to be able to make it 3-1,” coach Alain Vigneault said, “with the quality of our chances that we had 5-on-5 and our power play, and a costly mistake that permitted them to tie it up.”
With David Desharnais getting them on the board at 17:35 of the first, and then Andreas Athanasiou brutalizing Nick Holden to make it 1-1 at 7:46 of the second, the game started, and remained, and back-and-forth affair.
But the Rangers saw again what an average effort gets them. And so it’s on to the Winter Classic against the Sabres with the parameters pretty well set.
“I think everyone is excited,” Nash said. “The next few days are going to be fun.”