Rangers’ Four-goal Comeback Led By Gabe Perreault Falls Short In Gutting Ot Loss To Blue Jackets

The Rangers faced an even larger deficit in this game than they did just two days prior.

And after climbing out of a two-goal hole against the Penguins, the Blueshirts proved they haven’t totally lost their inspiration and overcame a four-goal margin in a single period Monday night to force overtime before Kirill Marchenko won it 5-4 for Columbus.

“It’s easy for us to pack it in and feel sorry for ourselves,” Adam Fox said. “But, on the flip side, you have the ability to play free and I think just play proud. We’re getting booed off the ice after the second. No one feels good about that. We’ve been saying it all year, we’re a prideful group. Things haven’t gone as smooth as anyone has liked, but definitely proud of the group for that third period and, honestly, just giving the fans something to cheer for, something to get excited for. We want to be able to deliver that for a full 60 minutes, not just one period at a time.”

Despite securing at least one point for a second game in a row, the Rangers have not won in regulation on home ice since before Thanksgiving.

That’s an 18-game streak at MSG without a regulation win.

The Rangers now have just three regulation wins over their last 25 contests.

Gabe Perreault had a hand in three of their four goals in the third period, scoring two of them — including the game-tying score — and assisting on one to help his team pick up at least one point.

It marked the 20-year-old’s second multigoal game through his first 32 career NHL games.

“I feel like every game I’m more and more comfortable,” said Perreault, who has five goals through 27 games this season. “J.T. [Miller] and Mika [Zibanejad] have done a great job helping me and mentoring me and making me feel confident. I think we’ve been starting to build some chemistry. It’s been really good playing with those guys.”

The Rangers didn’t get on the scoreboard until early in the third period, when the home team scored twice in the span of 24 seconds to make it a two-goal game with the bulk of the final frame remaining.

Vladislav Gavrikov scored his 10th goal of the season before Perreault took advantage of Denton Mateychuk’s whiffed pass.

The 20-year-old collected the puck and whipped it past Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins.

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With the extra skater on the ice amid a delayed penalty later in the period, Will Borgen stuffed in a loose puck.

The Rangers defenseman then dished to Perreault in transition for the 4-4 score with just under five minutes remaining in regulation.

“The fight we had in the third period, the energy,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We almost won in regulation. We had a couple of looks right at the end of the game to break it open. Their goalie made a couple pretty big saves to take it to overtime.”