Franchise icon Chris Kreider and former captain Jacob Trouba returned to Madison Square Garden Monday for the first time since both were traded to Anaheim, but Rangers center Mika Zibanejad, Kreider’s closest friend on the team, wasn’t in the lineup to face them, having been suspended for disciplinary reasons.
In the end, the Garden crowd got neither a victory for the home team, nor a goal from former fan favorite Kreider, as it was Cutter Gauthier’s power play goal at 5:51 of the third period that broke a tie and gave the Ducks the 4-1 victory, their first win in three games in the Metropolitan area.
Gauthier fired a long range shot through traffic that got by Igor Shesterkin (22 saves) for the winner. Gauthier added an empty-netter to make it 3-1, and Pavel Mintyukov added another with 2.9 seconds remaining to close the scoring and trigger boos from the crowd.
The Rangers fell to 16-14-4 on the season. They are in action again Tuesday, hosting the Vancouver Canucks at the Garden.
Zibanejad was suspended after he missed a team meeting Monday at the team’s practice facility in Westchester before the team’s morning skate.
“Mika will not play tonight because he violated a team rule,’’ Rangers coach Mike Sullivan announced after the skate. “He missed a team meeting this morning, and so he will not play tonight. He will be available tomorrow.’’
The Rangers had back-to-back games at the Garden Monday against Anaheim and Tuesday against the Vancouver Canucks.
For a team already playing without Adam Fox, its No. 1 defenseman and the point man on the top power play unit, not having Zibanejad presented a severe challenge. Zibanejad, whose 11 goals were tied with Artemi Panarin for the team lead, had been the Rangers’ best overall forward from the beginning of the season. Plus, he had been Sullivan’s choice in Saturday’s game against Montreal to run the point in Fox’s absence on the five-forward power play.
With Zibanejad at the point Saturday, the power play went 2-for-2, whereas it had gone 0-for-10 with Panarin at the point in the five games prior to that. But without Zibanejad, Sullivan put Panarin back at the point, and elevated Will Cuylle to join the first unit. The power play went 0-for-1 in the first period and had one shot on goal, from the second unit, by Conor Sheary.
The Garden played tribute videos to both Kreider and Trouba in the first period. Kreider’s went first, and lasted about a minute-and-a-half, featuring his being drafted by the team in the first round in 2009, and showing him scoring and celebrating throughout his 13-year career with the Blueshirts. Trouba’s video went second, and lasted about 45 seconds. Both players came off the bench and waved to the crowd after their videos played.
Trouba got the second assist on Anaheim’s first goal, by Jackson LaCombe, a shorthanded effort, at 7:18 of the second period. The Rangers were actually on a five-on-three advantage when Trouba collected the rebound of a shot by Panarin and cleared the puck off the boards to Ryan Poehling, who drove to the net and got a shot off that was saved by Shesterkin. But LaCombe followed the play up and got a couple whacks at the rebound and got it in.
The Rangers tied it, though, on a fluky goal, when defenseman Matthew Robertson fired a shot that was deflected in front of the slot by ex-Ranger Frank Vatrano. The puck popped up, and floated over the head of goalie Lukas Dostal, who turned around and tried to bat it away. Vincent Trocheck swung at it and as the puck went in, one referee immediately signaled a high stick.
But they checked it out on the replay and saw that Trocheck never made contact with the puck, so the goal was allowed, tying the game at 16:18. It was credited to Robertson.
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.
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