Henrik Lundqvist wouldn’t have been able to help much Sunday night.
Playing their third straight game without their star goaltender, the Rangers received another stellar showing from Cam Talbot in net, but the team still suffered its second straight loss, 3-2 to the Stars after an uneven performance at the Garden decided on Alex Hemsky’s goal just 1:02 into overtime.
“We’ve got to be a lot more consistent, night in, night out and each period as well,” Rick Nash said. “We’ve got to be a lot better.”
After an extremely slow start, the Rangers finally awoke in the third period, amassing 20 shots after totaling only 16 through two periods. Carried by Talbot (22 saves) through the first 40 minutes, the Rangers allowed only two shots in the third, dominating play before capitalizing on their third power play of the game.
With 1:20 left in regulation, Chris Kreider tied the game 2-2 with his 12th goal of the season, sending the game to overtime and securing one point for the Rangers (30-16-5), who will head out on a four-game road trip without forward Jesper Fast. Coach Alain Vigneault said Fast would be out two-to-three weeks with a knee sprain suffered in Saturday’s loss at Nashville.
Without one of the Rangers’ more dependable players, consistency could be even harder to come by.
“We were just a little bit off, a little behind as a team. We just weren’t very sharp,” defenseman Marc Staal said. “We were a half-foot off on our passes, a little sloppy in our end. It took a while to get our legs going.”
Following a scoreless first period, the Rangers committed back-to-back penalties 40 seconds apart — Staal for high-sticking, Dan Boyle for slashing — to give the Stars a two-man advantage and the game’s first goal, scored by Jason Spezza on pass from Tyler Seguin, at 2:53 of the second period.
After earning so few chances against Kari Lehtonen (34 saves) through most of the first two periods, the Rangers tied the game 1-1 with 4:33 left in the second, when Kevin Hayes fired a pretty pass across the middle to a wide-open Carl Hagelin at the far post, tapped in for his 11th goal of the season.
But another Rangers mistake gave Dallas the lead less than three minutes later, after Hayes turned it over at his own blue line to set up an Erik Cole wrist shot that slipped through Talbot’s pads.
“He’s given us a chance to win every game,” Vigneault said about his new starting goaltender. “The first 30-somewhat minutes he kept us in and in the third [period] he wasn’t very busy.
“He’s doing what a goaltender’s supposed to do. He gave his team a chance to win.”