In Calgary, Igor Shesterkin gave an early soft goal to the Flames on Tuesday, then made 24 saves in a 3-1 win for the New York Rangers.
Blake Coleman scored with less than two minutes gone in the first, for a 1-0 lead to Calgary.
“I don’t think there’s concern in the group that we have,” Coleman said. “I think there’s concern in the results and I think there’s concern in just it’s just another game we had a great start to and let get away. At the end of the day, losing’s got to keep you up at night. I know it’s easy to say, but I’m sick of losing.
“I think I can speak for the guys in the room [that] we’re sick of losing. It burns me up. You’ve got to be one of those guys that hates to lose more than win, and I think as a group we’ve got to have way more fire.”
The score stayed that way until the Rangers scored thee times in the middle frame.
Alexis Lafreniere used a tip in to tie the game, 1-1, at 7:38 off the power play.
“Just a good zone entry and a nice shot by ‘Gus,'” Lafreniere said. “Just tried to get a stick on it and I was lucky enough it went in.”
Chris Kreider then put the Rangers up, 2-1, on his own tip in at 14:09, also off the power play.
“It’s coming,” Kreider said. “We’re building some stuff, some stuff we want to work on. Each game presents a different challenge, different kill, different opportunities at different times.”
Erik Gustafsson then scored off cleaning up a loose puck in the crease off a Filip Chytil shot at 16:53 on a 4-on-4 for a 3-1 lead to the Rangers.
“Just a tough second period,” Flames captain Mikael Backlund said. “We came out, played well in the first, especially the first half of the first, and then we let them come into the game and they took over and they carried it a little bit in the second.”
Jacob Markstrom made 17 saves in the loss.
“The only guys that are going to get us out of this rut are the 20 guys that are in this room,” Calgary defenseman MacKenzie Weegar said. “We’ve got to work hard. I’ve said this all along. We’ve got the compete, we’ve got the effort in here, we’ve got the guys. We’re just in a bit of a slump; it came early. I believe we can get out of it. But it’s going to take hard work and we’ve got to put an end to it ASAP.”
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