The Rangers have lost two straight after winning nine of 12.
NEW YORK (AP) — Frederick Gaudreau scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and the Minnesota Wild beat the New York Rangers 3-2 Friday night following the jersey retirement ceremony for Henrik Lundqvist. Kevin Fiala and Mats Zuccarello— a former Ranger — each had a goal and an assist to extend their point streaks to 10 games, and Cam Talbot — a backup to Lundqvist for two seasons — stopped 25 shots for the Wild. Minnesota won for the seventh time in eight games (7-0-1). Chris Kreider got his NHL-leading 31st goal and Barclay Goodrow also scored for New York, which led 2-0 after one period. Igor Shesterkin had 31 saves. The Rangers have lost two straight after winning nine of 12. On the go-ahead goal, Gaudreau’s shot eluded Shesterkin at the 1:49 mark of the third for his third goal of the season. “I just tried to get the shot on goal as quickly as possible and it went in,” Gaudreau said. The Rangers had a possible tying goal with 1.9 seconds left waved off because of goaltender interference. “It’s a tough call, a 50-50 call,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. ”It would have loved if it went our way and it didn’t. So we move on.” The Rangers, who entered the contest with a five-game winning home streak, initially rose to the occasion following the stirring pregame ceremony for Lundqvist, their franchise goalie who had his No.30 raised to the Garden rafters before a raucous sellout crowd of 18,006. Goodrow opened the scoring for the Rangers at 8:47 of the first period with his 10th goal of the season. Jacob Trouba and Ryan Strome assisted. Kreider made it 2-0 with 2:52 remaining in the opening period after Talbot fumbled the puck in the crease and Kreider nudged it past him.
