Leo Carlsson once made a career best four-point game and Mason Mctavish netted the overtime winner to give the host Anaheim Ducks a 5-4 comeback victory over the New York Rangers on Friday.
Cutter Gauthier and Olen Zellweger each had one goal and an assist and Alex Killorn also scored for the ducks (32-32-8, 72 points), which recorded a couple of late goals in regulation to send the game to overtime. The goal Lukas Dostal made 26 rescues.
Mctavish was the hero 59 seconds into the extra session when he set up a store at the door and redirected Jackson Lacombe’s pass for his 20th goal of the season.
Adam Fox, JT Miller and Alexis Lafreniere each gathered a goal and an assist for Rangers (34-32-7, 75 points), which is bound with Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens for the Eastern Conference’s second wild card. However, New York traces the other two in the position, after playing more games.
Mika Zibanejad also scored for Rangers, who has won only once in the last six excursions (1-4-1). Goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin stopped 28 shots.
Anaheim is anything but officially eliminated from the playoffs in the Stanley Cup for the seventh season in a row but showed a huge Mettle.
With his team down 4-2, Gauthier pulled the ducks within a goal at 14:12 in the period when he pushed home a recovery.
Then, Zellweger banded the collision with 1:45 left and ended a chance as the trailer on a four-to-two rush to force extra time.
The game was a wasted opportunity for the flounder Rangers.
In a back and forth business, Fox Rangers gave a much-needed early boost when he opened the score on the 3:20 mark, but the Killorn responded with a Power-play goal at 16:55 in the first period and found the net with a recovery chance after his interruption opportunity was denied.
Miller extended his goal coring run to three matches less than two minutes later by chopping a rear shot from the track to end an odd man-rush, and Lafreniere extended the edge 14 seconds into the second period.
Carlsson made it a 3-2 game at 2:22 of the third period with a fantastic individual effort, the puck on the offensive blown before working on the track and shot a top corner shot.
But Zibanejad restored New York’s two-goal lead a few minutes later by blasting a one-hour from deep in the left circle for a power-play-goal, only that was not enough.
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