In a Wild Game, Rangers Fall to the Blue Jackets in Overtime

Came all the way back, just to lose in Overtime

By Daniel Feuerstein | March 2nd, 2026 | New York, NY.

The New York Rangers returned to Madison Square Garden after a comeback victory on Saturday Afternoon against the Penguins, this time faced the Columbus Blue Jackets. After being behind by a lot after the first two periods, somehow they lit a fire underneath their bench and went out to make another comeback and force overtime. Sadly, they dropped the second point for the second time in three games as they fell in overtime by a final score of five to four.

Game Recap:

The Blue Jackets got off to a great start and scored two goals in the first period when Denton Mateychuk took the puck and gave it to Kirill Marchenko, skating down the far side. As soon as he entered the Rangers’ zone, Marchenko took a shot high above the faceoff circle, and camping down low in front of the net was Adam Fantilli, who deflected the puck past Igor Shesterkion at 5:50 of the first period. Then, on the power play, the Blue Jackets got their second of the game. Charlie Coyle was at the near boards and passed the puck toward the near point to Ivon Provorov. Then a pass to Marchenko inside the far faceoff circle, did a one-timer that was deflected off a Rangers’ stick and in at 15:32 of the first period.

In the second period, the Blue Jackets added two more, with a short-handed goal from Sean Monahan. He went on a two-on-one down the far side, snapped one past Shesterkin at 3:27 of the second period. Then a breakout from their own zone as Damon Severson takes the puck and sends Coyle down the far side. As soon as he was onside over the blue line, Mathieu Olivier skated by his teammate, took the puck, and snapped on past Shesterkin at 11:54 of the second period.

As soon as the third period got underway, a big goal set off the fireworks. Will Cuylle sends the puck down low to the end boards, and Lafreniere chased it down. As soon as he turned around, he saw Vladislav Gavrikov in front. Quick pass and the shot went in at the 30-second mark. 24 seconds later, the Rangers quickly got a second goal to cut the deficit in half. As the Blue Jackets won the faceoff at the far side, Gabe Perreault takes advantage of a misplayed puck inside the offensive zone. He quickly pounces on the loose puck and snaps one in for his first of the game at the 54-second mark.

On a delayed penalty, the Rangers took advantage of the extra skater to force a third goal. J.T. Miller at the near boards shot the puck toward the net; it pinballed off Perreault, then off the right skate of Will Borgen, and slid into the net at 12:52. The game was all tied up at four when the Rangers skated down the ice to set up that big moment. Vincent Trocheck sent the puck off the far boards to allow Borgen to pick it up and skate hard toward the net. Then, when he started to skate behind the net, he turned around and saw Perreault skating into position inside the slot and gave a quick pass so Perreault could smack it home for his second of the game at 15:14.

But sadly, in overtime, Marchenko found a way to beat Shesterkin at 1:04 to take the second point. The Rangers have secured four points out of six since returning from the Olympic Break. While they should be six for six, their current point streak is looking solid right now. While they won’t make the playoffs, you’re hoping for some momentum for next season. But right now, there is some frustration with not securing that second point in this game.

Mike Sullivan’s Comments:

“I thought we had a good start to the game first seven to eight minutes. You know, we end up with probably three or four opportunities to create Grade A looks. Now, some of them didn’t materialize because we don’t execute, but there were opportunities there, two-on-ones, things of that nature. They go down on their first chance, and it goes in the net.

So I thought the start of the game was pretty good. I thought, from stretches in the second period, for example, I thought we were pushing, we had a lot of zone time, I thought we were playing hard, playing on our toes. The types of looks that we gave him, I think. Was probably the biggest takeaway. They’ve got a dynamic offensive team.

And they’ve got some skilled players who can score goals. You know, when you look at the types of goals that they got. You know, a lot of them were. With pretty high quality looks. It’s not so much that they got a lot of them, but the ones they got were pretty good. And they finished on them. Some of it was just, I think, our play in the high ice in the offensive zone, making sure we’re strong on pucks.

If we turn pucks over in that area of the rink, it’s hard to recover. We’ve got to make sure we don’t get beat out of deep ice in the offensive zone. I thought a couple of times we had opportunities to stay above people, and we don’t, and they get some looks that way, so I think the types of chances that we gave up were of too high a quality.

Where we had opportunities to, I think, try to negate some of that. But I give the players, I think, the fight we had in the third period, the energy. Um, we almost won on regulation. We had a couple of looks right at the end of the game,” said Head Coach Mike Sullivan.

EARNING POINTS: The Rangers came back from a 4-0 deficit entering the third period, forcing overtime, and earned a point in their third-straight game since returning from the Olympic break (1-0-2).

TWO QUICK GOALS: The Rangers scored two goals within the first 0:54 seconds of the third period. It is the sixth time in franchise history they have scored two goals through the first minute of a period and the first time since Nov. 4, 2018 (1:00 of P2).

GABE PERREAULT: Became the first Rangers player to record a three-point period (2G-1A) at age 20 or younger since Dec. 26, 1993 (Alex Kovalev). He also became the first Rangers rookie to post three points in a period since Mar. 19, 2000 (Kim Johnsson). This season, Perreault is one of nine rookies to have notched two or more multi-goal games.

VLADISLAV GAVRIKOV: Scored the Rangers’ first goal of the game, his 10th of the season, and has recorded a point in back-to-back games (1G-1A).

J.T. MILLER: tallied an assist in back-to-back games and has recorded a point in six of his last eight games (1G-5A), tied for the most points (6) on the Blueshirts in that time span.

VINCENT TROCHECK: Extended his point streak to three-straight games (3A) and has six points through his last five games (1G-5A).

WILL BORGEN: Notched his first multi-point game of the season (1G-1A) and has recorded three points through his last three games (1G-2A).

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