The New York Rangers and Utah Hockey Club share the commonality of being .500 teams and facing similar deficits in the wild card races in their respective conferences.
Both teams hope to do something Thursday night when the Rangers visit the Utah Hockey Club in Salt Lake City.
The Rangers are suddenly in this position after reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the second time in three seasons last spring. New York opened the season with a 12-4-1 record before limping to a 4-15-0 mark over its next 19 games.
The Rangers are showing slight improvement by going 4-1-2 in their last seven games and picking up a point in five straight contests (3-0-2).
New York nearly won its third straight one-goal game on Tuesday but instead ended up losing 3-2 in overtime to the Colorado Avalanche. The setback left them five points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets in the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
After Sam Carrick and Adam Edstrom scored in regulation, the Rangers were stopped twice in a tight game in overtime before allowing the game-winner with 37 seconds left.
“It’s good until the end, but we have to win,” defenseman Adam Fox said after New York allowed the tying goal with 1:13 left in regulation. “I think that’s how you lose. “I mean, if you’re not playing well, you’re not playing well. But not coming out with two points in that game is really boring.”
“The guys, I mean, they competed and did everything we wanted to do for 58 minutes,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “It’s really hard to walk away without getting that extra point.”
Utah earned a 6-5 overtime win in New York on Oct. 12 to improve to 3-0-0 on the season. Utah went 16-11-5 with four straight wins from Dec. 12-20 before going 2-7-2 in its last 11 contests.
Utah is 1-3-0 so far in its seven-game homestand.
Utah was held to three goals or less for the ninth time since its four-game winning streak in a 5-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday. The team squandered a one-goal lead and allowed four goals in the last two periods on the road.
After taking five penalties in the second half, the loss left Utah six points behind the Calgary Flames in the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
“From me and everybody, I think we have a lot. That’s about it,” Utah tight end Nick Bjugstad said. “I don’t really have any more explanation. It’s frustrating because we know we can be better. We know we can have a better record.”
Utah’s slide came as leading scorer Clayton Keller was quiet offensively and third-leading scorer Dylan Guenther.
Keller had an assist Tuesday but has one goal in his last nine games.
Guenther has not scored in his last nine contests since scoring in four consecutive games.
–Field Level Media