. Reilly Smith scored twice, Oscar Lindberg got a goal against his former team and David Perron converted a penalty shot for Vegas, which has lost consecutive games after winning five straight. Maxime Lagace, the fourth goalie used by the Golden Knights this season, stopped 32 shots in his first NHL start. Kreider pulled the Rangers to 4-3 with a power-play goal as he took a pass from Zibanejad and beat Lagace from the left side for his third at 5:31 of the third. Buchnevich tied it nearly four minutes later, taking a pass from Zibanejad on the left side and putting it into the open net with Lagace out of position after moving forward in the crease. It gave Buchnevich a goal for the third straight game. Grabner added an empty-netter with 1:14 left to seal it. Trailing 2-1 after a lackluster first period, the Rangers came out aggressively to start the second and tied the score at 1:29. Kevin Hayes' shot from the left side behind the net went off Rick Nash's skate to Zuccarello, who put it in for his third. The Golden Knights went back ahead 3-2 at 7:06 as Smith scored on a backhand from the right side for his fourth of the season and second of the game. Lundqvist made a pair of sprawling saves on his back with about a minute left in the second, but Perron was hooked by Hayes and awarded a penalty shot. Perron deked and scored five-hole on Lundqvist for his fourth to put Vegas up by two. Vesey put the Rangers up 1-0 just 2:45 into the game as he got a pass from David Desharnais from the left side behind the net and fired it past Lagace. It came on the Rangers' first shot on goal. The Golden Knights tied it as Lindberg scored at 5:22, backhanding the rebound of a shot by Alex Tuch past a sprawled Lundqvist for his fifth. Vegas took a 2-1 lead with 39 seconds left in the first when Colin Miller's point shot was deflected in front by Jonathan Marchessault and put in by Smith. NOTES: Rangers D Brady Skjei played in his 100th regular-season game. ... Zibanejad topped 200 career points and has at least one in four straight games (three goals, four assists). ... The Rangers have won six straight first meetings against expansion teams since losing the initial matchup at home to Anaheim on Oct. 19, 1993. ... Lundqvist earned his 408th win, moving past Glenn Hall for sole possession of ninth place on the NHL's career list. ... The teams conclude their season series Jan. 7 at Las Vegas. ... The Golden Knights, who have been active in trying to help the Las Vegas community heal from the mass shooting at the beginning of the month, were staying at a hotel in Battery Park in lower Manhattan near a terrorist attack earlier in the day. Just blocks away, a 29-year-old man from Uzbekistan drove a rented truck onto a bike path, killing at least eight people and seriously injuring 11 others. The team was delayed a little in leaving the area for Madison Square Garden, but arrived about 75 minutes before the start. ... Vegas placed G Oscar Dansk on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. G Dylan Ferguson was recalled from Kamloops of the Western Hockey League on an emergency basis to serve as Lagace's backup. Top goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (concussion) has not been cleared to resume skating, and backup Malcolm Subban (lower-body injury) is also out. UP NEXTGolden Knights: At Boston on Thursday night in the third of a six-game trip. Rangers: At Tampa Bay on Thursday night to open a two-game trip to Florida.---Follow Vin Cherwoo on Twitter at www.twitter.com/VinCherwoo---More NHL coverage: https://www.apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey)
Time: 7:00 PM EDT Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York, N. Y., 10001 NEW YORK -- When the Vegas Golden Knights take the ice at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, they likely will do so with their fourth starting goaltender of the season. When the New York Rangers take the same ice, they will do so in search of their fourth win of the season. Both the Knights and Rangers have had their struggles this season, but one has struggled with goaltending health while the other has struggled with playing consistently over a full game. The Knights (8-2-0) took only their second loss Monday night, a 6-3 thumping at the hands of the New York Islanders in Brooklyn. Oscar Dansk, Vegas' third starting goaltender, sustained a lower-body injury in the second period and did not return. Fourth-string goaltender Maxime Lagace looked overmatched, allowing four goals on 11 shots in relief. In less than a month, the expansion team has lost Marc-Andre Fleury (concussion), Malcom Subban (lower body) and Dansk to injuries. Now it's possible that the 24-year-old Lagace will make his first NHL start at MSG against the Rangers. If Lagace doesn't start, it could be Dylan Ferguson, who is currently playing with Kamloops of the WHL, a junior hockey league. Not even coach Gerard Gallant knew the plan following the Knights' loss to the Islanders on Monday." I don't know -- seriously," Gallant said. "(General manager) George (McPhee) and (assistant general manager) Kelly (McCrimmon) are probably working on that right now. I don't know who's coming in, I really don't. I'll know in the near future." "You've got to be ready, that's your job," Lagace said to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "When I saw Oscar get hurt, I knew I was going in, and I tried to focus." It wasn't a perfect night. It wasn't the start I wanted. But I'll regroup and get ready for (Tuesday)." The Rangers (3-7-2), meanwhile, have yet to win consecutive games and are coming off another loss in which they allowed an early goal and could not recover. The Canadiens jumped to a 3-0 lead Saturday in Montreal and outshot the Rangers 19-2 in the first period, although the Rangers made it a game before losing 5-4. At this point in the season, who is to blame for the poor start when the team had high expectations?"There is no excuse -- we were embarrassed there in the first," McDonagh said to the New York Post. "When someone questions your effort level and compete, it's not a good feeling. You want to prove it to yourself and prove it as a group that that's not what we're about, that's not acceptable, that's not who we are." Ondrej Pavelec was in net for a second straight game, as Rangers coach Alain Vigneault wanted to ride the hot hand after his strong game against the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night. But after Pavelec allowed five goals to the Canadiens, it is likely Henrik Lundqvist will be the starting goalie against the Knights. Lundqvist has fared poorly, with a 3.11 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage. As Lundqvist goes, so usually go the Rangers, and he hopes two games off help him find his form." My game is all about decisions," Lundqvist said to the New York Post. "I don't rely on size or speed. I rely on good decisions. So that's something I'm working on in practice and just need to bring it in games, all the time." I think you see a lot of games now in the league where there are blowouts and just different type of hockey right now. As a goalie, if you're not on top of it every night, you're not going to have good results. You really have to push yourself to play on top of things to have results. I think it keeps you very honest of where you're at with your game all the time." If Lundqvist doesn't make enough good decisions against a Knights team playing the second half of a back-to-back with a fourth-string goaltender, the Rangers may have more problems than they realized.
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