Oilers rally in third, again, to down Rangers, 4-3 Quick loses first in regulation

In New York, the Rangers nursed a 1-0 lead over the Edmonton Oilers into the third period on Friday night , and collapsed for six minutes and surre4ndered four goals in a 4-3 loss.

Blake Wheeler scored early in the fist period to stake the Rangers to a 1-0 lead, the goal came off a brilliant tip pass to him from Mika Zibanejad behind the Oilers net.

“That was special and he’s a special player,” Wheeler said. “I’m obviously fortunate to be out there with a guy like that. It was just a heck of a play.”.

In the third, the Oilers’ Zach Hyman and Evander Kane scored 70 seconds apart to take a 2-1 lead.

The outburst started at 3:07.

Edmonton improved to 15-15-1.

Stuart Skinner made 31 saves in the win.

“I just felt pretty good in there, the guys did a great job,” Skinner said. “The PK was good tonight (2-for-3) and obviously you have to score goals to win games, too, so props to the guys in front of me.”

Warren Foegele pushed the Oilers lead to 3-1 at 6:36.

“It started with keeping it simple,” Foegele said. “It kind of happened yesterday; we just stayed composed and once we got one momentum, it just continued. Guys are hopping over the boards taking pucks to the net, and it was a great team effort by the guys and we were happy to get the win.”

Ryan McLeod  added a marker at 9:52 for a 4-1 advantage.

The Rangers dropped to 22-8-1.

“I thought we were missing energy the entire night,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “We didn’t generate very much in the second period, and that kind of carried over into the third period. ‘Quicky’ made some unbelievable saves in the second period to mask some of that.

“Throughout the entire game, we didn’t have the pop that we needed. When we didn’t start to skate a little bit towards them, we went east-west and turned the puck over and that kind of kills everything and they can come back at you very quick.”

The Rangers tried to rally back late in the frame.

Zibanejad scored off a 6-on-4 power play at 15:42 to make it 4-2.

“I thought throughout the whole game, it wasn’t a great game by us by any means,” Zibanejad said. “I thought in the second [period] we had a few power plays and 5-on-5 shifts that we couldn’t make anything happen either way. They got their power play, and obviously we have to come out better than that in the third.

“We didn’t get up to our level. We still had the lead going into the third, but we have to be better than that and we have a chance redeem ourselves tomorrow and finish on a good note before the [holiday] break.”

Will Cuylle hit for a goal with one second left on the game clock for the 4-3 final.

“They came out hard; they’re a fast and a big team and didn’t give us much room,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “But as the game went on, we started to give ourselves some more room and make more plays.

“I like that we stuck with it and obviously in the third period, that was our strongest push.”

Jonathan Quick made 24 saves in the loss, his first regulation loss since joining the Rangers..