COLUMBUS, Ohio — Franchise history will have to be made differently for this Rangers team.
The Blueshirts’ record-tying 10-game winning streak came to an end on Sunday night as the club suffered its first loss of the month, 4-2, at the hands of the Blue Jackets in front of a sold-out house. A crowd of 18,293 people gathered at Nationwide Arena.
With a win, this Rangers team will be etched into the history of an organization that dates back 98 years.
More importantly, they would have surpassed the Canucks as the NHL’s leading scorer.
The winning streak may no longer be up for grabs, but they still have the point lead, just one point behind Vancouver.
The energy put into winning every game since the All-Star break has finally caught up with the Rangers. The Rangers didn’t win many puck battles against the team at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division.
Columbus was consistently starved for the puck for 60 minutes, exposing the visiting team’s lackluster defense.
The Rangers were good at winning two games in a row this season, but that streak (9-0-0) has come to an end as well.
The game was tied at 1 at the start of the second period, and the Rangers were caught sleepwalking 18 seconds into the Blue Jackets’ net.
Kirill Marchenko then took a scrambling Rangers goaltender Jonathan Quick off the net and put away the puck to give Columbus a 2-1 lead.
The Rangers’ leading forward was barely visible in the center frame, but the fourth line tied it again at the 11:11 mark.
Adam Edstrom brought the puck to the net, and Matt Rempe followed and applied pressure, but the puck bounced off the skate of Columbus defenseman Jake Bean and into the goal.
It was supposed to be a momentum-generating play, but instead the Rangers played like they have so many times this season after scoring the decisive goal.
Just 46 seconds later, Jack Roslovic scored off a rush and the Blue Jackets regained the lead. The rush allowed another goal from Ivan Provorov, and Columbus entered the second intermission with a two-goal lead.
The game kicked off the same way as three of the Rangers’ last four games, with Matt Lempe accepting the veteran’s challenge.
This time it was Mathieu Olivier who called the game, and the Blue Jackets forward beat Rempe and briefly retreated to the locker room after taking the ice.
Heavyweights are lining up to defeat the 6-foot-8.5-inch genius fighter who has taken the NHL by storm after dropping the gloves in four of his first five fights.
However, it didn’t quite have the same effect as the Blue Jackets took the lead on Dmitri Voronkov’s power play goal.
The Rangers managed to withstand the home team’s momentum, thanks in large part to Quick’s acrobatics at the net, and tied the game heading into the first intermission.
Blue Jackets fans proved they are still bitter about the loss of Artemi Panarin, who was showered with boos as he scored his career-high 33rd point of the season from a tough angle.
This is a team that has heated up in 10 games after one of the worst months in recent memory.
This team remains the first team in franchise history to win five straight West Region outings.
The Rangers will have to find another way to be remembered.
