In a season full of disappointments, this one became just the latest.
This one might sting the most.
This one — with the Rangers starting to trend in the right direction after their horrific slide — teased growth and ended with déjà vu.
The Blueshirts erupted for three goals across the opening 10 minutes.
Then they watched that lead evaporate as the Stars controlled possession, kept generating chances and pulled even before the second-period horn sounded.
They couldn’t keep another advantage in the final minutes, either.
And the Rangers failed to escape in overtime when Jamie Benn scored the power-play winner at the 2:17 mark and sent the Blueshirts to a 5-4 loss.
This defeat might’ve come at an extra cost for a Rangers team (18-20-2) that’s already banged up, too.
Filip Chytil, who has an extensive history of injuries, exited with an upper-body injury and didn’t return.
His final shift ended with around four minutes left in the second period and he wasn’t on the bench during the third.
Head coach Peter Laviolette didn’t have any update postgame beyond that the center was being evaluated.
“This one sucks,” said Alexis Lafreniere, who snapped a 13-game drought with two goals. “Especially after our start. Feel like we were playing well. [Jonathan Quick] made some big saves again, but we can’t just keep giving up good chances after good chances. Eventually, it’s gonna go in.”
Vincent Trocheck gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead with just over seven minutes remaining when he tipped in a Mika Zibanejad shot from in front of the net — occupying the power-play spot that usually belongs to an injured Chris Kreider — for his second goal of the game to snap a brutal 1-for-31 stretch from the unit.
But K’Andre Miller committed a costly turnover in the corner of the Blueshirts end, and Thomas Harley capitalized on his shooting lane with 2:39 remaining to force overtime.
Before the Rangers blew their pair of leads, plenty of promising signs emerged to suggest that strides in recent games weren’t flukes.
When they made their playoff run last year, this was the version of Lafreniere that carried them.
And when they earned points in six of their opening seven matches to start the 2024-25 campaign, that rendition of Lafreniere ignited their offense with four goals and seven points.
For most of the 32 games that followed, which coincided with the stretch following his massive seven-year extension, Lafreniere’s numbers had plummeted.
He’d collected just two since Nov. 21.
But that changed just seven minutes into the first period, when Artemi Panarin dropped a pass back to Lafreniere on a rush and the winger snapped a shot past Jake Oettinger.
Less than five minutes later, Lafreniere secured his first multi-goal game since May 26 on a breakaway.
In between, Trocheck tipped in a Will Borgen shot, and the Rangers, despite some early chances for the Stars, snagged a commanding lead.
“We had a good start, but you play like 10 good minutes, it’s not gonna be enough,” Lafreniere said. “You gotta play 60, especially against a good team like that. If we don’t defend, they’re gonna score for sure.”
The collapse started with Urho Vaakanainen deflecting a puck into the Rangers’ net.
Evgenii Dadonov knocked in a rebound.
And Jason Robertson curled around the net, collected possession and backhanded the tying goal past Quick — who failed again to become the first United States-born goaltender to win 400 NHL games.
Then, after Harley’s late equalizer, the Stars took their only lead when it mattered after Panarin was whistled for hooking in the extra frame.
Dallas out-attempted the Rangers 68-48, according to Natural Stat Trick, and 13 of those qualified as high-danger opportunities.
The Rangers’ attempt to claw back into the wild-card hunt — they ended the night four points behind the Blue Jackets after earning a point — won’t get any easier, either. Kreider hit injured reserve Monday with an upper-body injury.
Goaltender Igor Shesterkin remains on IR with the same label.
And then there’s Chytil, whose career had previously been jeopardized by concussions and who already missed seven games with an upper-body injury earlier this season.
More lineup shuffling, given the Arthur Kaliyev waiver claim and Matt Rempe’s return from suspension, will certainly follow.
“I mean, you come out of the gates, you’re up 3-0 at home, you don’t win a hockey game, then you did enough wrong defensively to not be happy with it,” Laviolette said.
At some point, if they’re going to save their season, the Rangers will need to go on runs, to win multiple games, to make sure leads as large as the three-goal one they had against the Stars don’t disappear and result in losses. Tuesday marked another missed chance.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
