Rangers, Mike Sullivan frustrated by officiating in OT loss to Vegas: ‘Like, really?’

NEW YORK — There’s a big difference, New York Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan explained, between defending against a six-on-five versus a five-on-four.

The Rangers led the Vegas Golden Knights by a goal with just under two minutes remaining in the third period at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night when defenseman Will Borgen and Vegas forward Brett Howden were both sent off for roughing. The penalties meant that with goalie Carter Hart on the bench, the Golden Knights had a traditional five-on-four power play setup to work with, instead of the usual six-on-five trailing teams often use late in games.

Sullivan was furious after Vegas scored with 0:52 to play to tie the game at two — “What gave it away?” he quipped to reporters after New York’s 3-2 overtime loss. New York, despite picking up a point in its fourth consecutive game, lost its second consecutive game in overtime by the same score.

“There was nothing going on,” Sullivan said of the coincidental minors. “The implication of that at that time of the game is the difference between the five-on-four versus a six-on-five is significant.”

Sullivan added that he felt disappointed for his players. He felt they competed hard and praised the way they’d played during a four-game week against playoff-hungry teams — the Rangers beat the Dallas Stars and Ottawa Senators earlier in the week, then fell to the Colorado Avalanche and Golden Knights on the weekend.

New York got off to a poor start on Sunday. They were out-attempted 26-10 at even strength in the first period, while Vegas took a 1-0 lead and had 73.5% of the expected goal share in the opening 20, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“Obviously came out a little slow,” said Rangers captain J.T. Miller. “There’s no excuses, but we’ve had a tough stretch of games here, and our legs weren’t really with us. [Goalie Jonathan Quick] did a great job. I think we felt excited after the first that it was only 1-0.”

The Rangers followed up with a much better second period. They out-attempted Vegas 25-12 at even strength, had a 10-3 advantage in high-danger chances and controlled 79.4% of the expected goal share, per Natural Stat Trick.

The Golden Knights pressed throughout the third period, and in overtime won the game in the final minute on a set play. Howden won a defensive zone draw, and as Jack Eichel took off down the ice, Shea Theodore hit him with a bank pass. Eichel beat Quick with a deke, and Vegas took the extra point.

Of course, the overtime period didn’t unfold without controversy.

Mika Zibanejad, who extended his point streak to seven games with a goal and an assist, jawed with the referee in the extra frame — “I think it was the whole game,” he later said. No penalty was called when Matthew Robertson was tripped.

“Like, really?” Zibanejad asked rhetorically after the game. “Zero power plays and you don’t call that? I don’t know. Again, we can’t control that. It stings now. We could probably look at other things we could’ve done better not to get to that point, but that one’s pretty obvious.”

The Rangers’ coach, meanwhile, took a more philosophical approach to assessing Sunday’s game as a whole.

“I’ve had this conversation with the players a lot,” Sullivan began. “When you leave the rink, throw the score out, throw all the numbers out, all the analytics, whatever you want to call it, players know, when you get in the car on the ride home, you get a feeling about the experience you just went through, and that feeling doesn’t lie. I think players know. They know when they play well, they know when they compete hard, they know when they left it out there. I think they’ve got that feeling.”