The Rangers were usually the agents of chaos last season, but Saturday night, it was the Utah Hockey Club who thrived in disorder.
A chance to hand the NHL’s newest club their first franchise loss came and went as the Blueshirts fell, 6-5, to Utah on Saturday night in their home opener at Madison Square Garden, after Clayton Keller scored with less than a minute left in overtime to secure the victory.
There was not nearly as much structure or composure from the Rangers in Game 2 compared to Game 1, which can be credited to the shiftiness and scrappiness with which Utah plays.
The Rangers, armed with new defense pairs who are still finding their footing to start the season, chased for a majority of the game.
This was an eventful homecoming at MSG that featured a ton of open ice and, as a result, goals.
The lamp was lit seven total times in the second period alone, with Utah taking a 5-4 lead into the second intermission.
Despite Will Cuylle notching the 5-5 equalizer with 7:04 left in regulation, the Rangers couldn’t finish the job in overtime and dropped their first game of the 2024-25 season.
There was a sort of dysfunction Utah fostered, which personified itself in K’Andre Miller’s miss on a wide-open net on his trickled rebound shortly before Cuylle tied it up.
Miller hung his head over the bench in disbelief.
The Rangers managed to answer all but one of Utah’s goals in the middle frame, when Keller and Kevin Stenlund scored just over 2 ½ minutes apart from one another for the two-goal lead.
Despite outshooting Utah 33-23 in regulation, the Rangers gave up a lot in areas of prime real estate. Utah took advantage of what was given to them.
During four-on-four play, following a failed Rangers challenge for Victor Mancini’s waived-off goal and Utah goalie Connor Ingram’s holding penalty on Chris Kreider, Miller turned the puck over behind the Blueshirts net.
Alex Kerfoot was able to collect it and find Keller for the 3-2 lead.
The fourth line mixed it up with Utah later in the middle frame, when Sam Carrick and Adam Edstrom both dropped the gloves.
The two bruising forwards threw some serious haymakers, but Edstrom and Utah’s Jack McBain were assessed game misconducts to end their nights after they were the secondary fight to breakout.
The Rangers later fended off a 5-on-3 Utah power play before giving one up to Dylan Guenther when Utah had the 5-on-4 advantage.
Braden Schneider, however, made an aggressive move to the net toward the end of the middle frame to keep the Rangers within striking distance.
Utah carved up the Rangers in the neutral zone early and created lots of traffic in the middle of their offensive zone.
It allowed the visitors to open the scoring after Keller found Barrett Hayton all alone in front of the net for the 1-0 lead — and the Blueshirts’ first goal against of the season — less than four minutes into the game.
Through the first 20 minutes, head coach Peter Laviolette rode his top horses in Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere — especially after the two wings capitalized on a 2-on-2 rush.
Lafreniere dropped the puck back for the star Russian wing, who wristed it home to knot the game at 1-1 and notch his first goal of the season.
