Leo Carlsson scored once in a career-best four-point game and Mason McTavish netted the overtime winner to give the host Anaheim Ducks a 5-4 comeback victory over the New York Rangers on Friday.
Cutter Gauthier and Olen Zellweger each had a goal and an assist and Alex Killorn also scored for the Ducks (32-32-8, 72 points), who recorded a pair of late goals in regulation to send the game into overtime. Goaltender Lukas Dostal made 26 saves.
McTavish was the hero 59 seconds into the extra session when he set up shop at the doorstep and redirected Jackson LaCombe’s pass for his 20th goal of the season.
Adam Fox, J.T. Miller and Alexis Lafreniere each collected a goal and an assist for the Rangers (34-32-7, 75 points), who are tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Montreal Canadiens for the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot. New York, though, trails the other two in the standings, having played more games.
Mika Zibanejad also scored for the Rangers, who have won just once in the last six outings (1-4-1). goaltender Igor Shesterkin stopped 28 shots.
Anaheim is all but officially eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs for the seventh consecutive season but showed tremendous mettle.
With his team down 4-2, Gauthier pulled the Ducks within one goal at 14:12 of the period when he pushed home a rebound.
Then Zellweger tied the clash with 1:45 remaining, finishing a chance as the trailer on a four-on-two rush to force extra time.
The game was a wasted opportunity for the floundering Rangers.
In a back-and-forth affair, Fox provided the Rangers a much-needed early boost when he opened the scoring at the 3:20 mark, but Killorn responded with a power-play goal at 16:55 of the first period, finding the net with a rebound chance after his breakaway opportunity was denied.
Miller extended his goal-scoring run to three games less than two minutes later by chipping a back-hand shot from the slot to finish an odd-man rush, and Lafreniere extended the edge 14 seconds into the second period.
Carlsson made it a 3-2 game at 2:22 of the third period with a fantastic individual effort, stealing the puck at the offensive blueline before working to the slot and firing a top-corner shot.
But Zibanejad restored New York’s two-goal lead a couple of minutes later by blasting a one-timer from deep in the left circle for a power-play goal, only it was not enough.
–Field Level Media
