NEW YORK - It only took two games for the Rangers to make our heads spin.
After a ho-hum, drama-less win to begin the new season in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the Blueshirts took us for a wild ride in Saturday's home opener at Madison Square Garden. They rallied from behind three separate times but still fell short in a 6-5 overtime loss to the newly located Utah Hockey Club.
Will Cuylle, who was in the middle of the action all night, sent the game to overtime by scoring with 7:04 left in regulation, but Clayton Keller finished New York off with 54.9 seconds remaining in OT. It left the Rangers lamenting their defensive lapses and costly mistakes.
"We're generating offense, but we’ve got to keep the puck out of our own net," veteran Chris Kreider said. "We’ve got to help our goaltender."
It was a much different feel from Wednesday's 6-0 win over the Penguins, with plenty of shaky moments while goalie Igor Shesterkin went from an opening-night shutout to 20 saves on 26 shots faced.
Matt Rempe: Rangers to unleash the big rookie for Saturday's home opener
A few of the shots that slipped by the 28-year-old netminder will surely stick in his craw, but most of Utah's goals were the result of what head coach Peter Laviolette usually refers to as "loud" scoring chances.
"I don't think we gave up volume defensively," he said. "It wasn't that we gave up 50 shots and 'X' amount of chances. ... It's just, I thought we could have been a little bit cleaner − a little bit tighter − defensively."
"We talked about it all morning," he said. "The skill that they have, the speed that they have. They're dangerous. They're extremely dangerous. They've scored now 16 goals in three games, and so, they know how to create. I do think that we generated, as well. So, if we could just tighten some of the situational stuff up, it could have been different."
Second-period mayhem
The first period was eventful enough, with Barrett Hayton capitalizing on a positional miscommunication from the newly formed defensive pair of Braden Schneider and Jacob Trouba and a lackluster backcheck from Alexis Lafrenière for an easy backdoor goal that gave Utah a 1-0 lead at the 3:43 mark. The Rangers knotted the score less than five minutes later on Artemi Panarin's first goal of the season, a wicked wrister that was setup by a nifty drop pass from Lafrenière in transition. But that was nothing compared to what would come in the middle 20 minutes.
The second period featured a little bit of everything − crazy bounces, controversial calls, a pair of ferocious fights that brought the MSG crowd to its feet and left at least one of its contestants bloodied, and much more.
"It was back and forth," Adam Fox said. "Penalties will do that sometimes. A five-on-three and things like that will sometimes cause a period to get a little wacky, but we fought hard when we went down."
New York and Utah combined for seven goals in a span of 16:11, including Panarin's second of the night (and the season) − "I felt so much better tonight than I did in the first game," No. 10 said − and a hard-to-explain tally from K'Andre Miller, who was attempting to rim the puck along the boards that somehow ricocheted along the goal line and into the Utah net.
But the team formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes won the wild period by a 4-3 margin, with their goals coming from Jack McBain, Keller, Kevin Stenlund and Dylan Guenther.
Keller's broke a 2-2 tie at the 6:02 mark after Alex Kerfoot hustled to strip a puck from Miller behind the Rangers' net, with Stenlund pushing the Utah lead to 4-2 a few minutes later. That was probably the most frustrating goal of the night for Shesterkin, who had a clean look at the shooter but still got beat past his left arm at the near post.
Adam Edström fights, gets ejected
Miller's wacky goal cut New York's deficit to 4-3 with 10:42 left in the period, but it was quickly followed by a slew of penalties. It began with a fight between one of the newest Rangers, Sam Carrick, and Michael Kesselring, but their bout was quickly overshadowed when a second scrap broke out between rookie Adam Edström and McBain.
Edström celebrated his 24th birthday by pummeling the Utah center with a few heavy blows to the head, proving that Matt Rempe isn't the only Blueshirt rookie who knows how to throwdown. But the fight proved costly. Because they dropped the gloves after Carrick and Kesselring had already started exchanging punches, both Edström and McBain were assessed game-misconduct penalties and ejected from the contest.
Controversial calls
The whistles kept coming at a feverish pace, with a pair of goalie interference calls drawing the ire of the Rangers (and the home crowd).
They had less of a beef on the first one, which came at the 4:54 mark of the first period. Rookie defenseman Victor Mancini appeared to score the first goal of his NHL career, but the referees immediately waved it off while signaling that Rempe had interfered with Utah goalie Connor Ingram.
"Remps doesn’t really get the benefit of the doubt with a lot of things," Fox said. "I thought he was out of the crease in time."
Rempe, who finished with a team-low 3:40 time on ice, has certainly drawn extra attention from refs since bursting onto the scene with a slew of fights and crunching hits last season, but replays showed he was in the crease as Mancini was shooting. So, while, yes, the call may have been a bit soft given the minimal contact, it wasn't completely off base, either.
"We need to stay out of the paint," said Laviolette, who challenged the call and lost, resulting in a delay-of-game penalty. "We demand our players get to the paint, and then we want them to stay out of it. It's a fine line. He's also battling for position there, as well. So, I think he was in it for a second, then I think he started to move out. The back side of his heels are just crossing the line, but I didn't see much contact."
The more egregious call that went against the Rangers came at the 11:27 mark.
Cuylle was racing Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to a loose puck that goalie Connor Ingram simultaneously came charging out of the net to play, with all three players colliding. The contact seemed unavoidable, but Cuylle was still called for goalie interference.
That was the biggest head-scratcher of the night.
"I saw nothing," Laviolette said. "I saw Will in the battle with somebody else (Sergachev) for a puck. If you really slow it down, both players hit the goalie. The goalie's 50 feet out of the net. … For me, that was incidental contact."
Just 1:09 later, Miller was hit with a high-sticking penalty, giving Utah a five-on-three advantage.
The Rangers were 39 seconds away from killing both penalties when Nick Schmaltz drew the defense and dished a pass to Guenther for a one-timer that upped Utah's lead to 5-3.
Another impressive night for the third line
Schneider weaved through the Utah defense to cut the deficit to 5-4 with 2:01 remaining in the never-ending second period, pulling the Rangers within striking distance for the third.
They played a cleaner game in the final 20 minutes, with the third line featuring Cuylle, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko in the middle of the push for the equalizer. They were New York's most effective trio for the second consecutive game, with all three skaters finishing with plus-three ratings while outshooting Utah, 10-3, and out-attempting them, 15-6, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Cuylle was in the middle of that effort with the game-tying goal, an assist and team-high five hits. The 22-year-old now has three points (one goal and two assists) through two games and has been throwing his weight around with authority.
His skating has been noticeable, which is helping him cause disruption on the forecheck, and he's doing a lot of his damage from the high-danger areas. That's where his goal came from Saturday, as he got to the front of the net to receive a pass from Kakko and then deflected home a rebound attempt from Fox.
"They're bringing energy," Kreider said of the third line. "They're getting pucks to the inside. They're getting bodies to the inside, and they're creating chances."
Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more of his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano .
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Postgame takeaways: Rangers lose to Utah on a drama-filled opening night
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