Rangers undone by soft goaltending in loss to Blue Jackets

In Columbus, the New York Rangers were outdone by soft goaltending in a 5-3 loss to the Blue Jackets on Thursday night.

Joonas Korpisalo made made 33 saves in a 5-3 win for the Blue Jackets.

The Rangers took a 2-0 lead in the game off goals from Artemi Panarin and Barclay Goodrow in the first period.

“We didn’t play the way we should have played for 60 minutes and that cost us two points tonight,” Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said. “We weren’t ourselves tonight, let’s put it that way. There were three guys I was happy with and the rest of them were below what they usually are.”

Boone Jenner scored twice in four-goal reply from Columbus to take a 4-2 lead after two periods of play.

“We tried to play to our strengths,” Jenner said. “We had some shifts in their zone, we had some looks on the rush. We definitely want to keep building on it.”

Gustav Nyquist and Sean Kuraly also scored Columbus in the run.

“We played a good 60 overall. It was a huge win, obviously after last game,” Columbus’ Patrik Laine said. “We have to string a couple of wins together now.

“We’ve been struggling to score goals lately. Getting two right away after they scored twice was pretty good for us. Every line had a chance to contribute.”

New York’s Mike Zibanejad scored off the power play in the third period to trim the lead to one goal.

“We let them back in,” Gallant said. “We get up 2-0 and then it seemed like we stopped playing a little bit, a little overconfident, I don’t know. They took the momentum and we never got it back.”

Kuraly scored an empty-net goal with under three minutes left in the third period for the 5-3 final.

“It’s not always perfect or how you script it in the beginning,” Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen said. “In the third he was lights out, made some incredible saves down the stretch.”

Alexander Georgiev made 14 saves on 18 shots in the loss.

“We’ve had some bad starts in a row, so it was nice to get a good start,” the Rangers’ Jacob Trouba said. “When we had a two-goal lead that’s something you don’t want to give up.”