Rangers blow three-goal lead in brutal overtime loss to Stars

In a season full of disappointments, this was positioned to become the latest.The Rangers had erupted for three goals across the opening 11:24.

Then, they’d watched that lead evaporate as the Stars controlled possession, kept generating chances and eventually pulled even before the second period ended.They couldn’t keep a late lead in the final minutes, either.And they failed to escape in overtime, when Jamie Benn scored to clinch the Blueshirts’ 5-4 loss and mark their latest failed attempt at securing back-to-back wins for the first time since November.

This loss might’ve come at a cost for a Rangers group that’s already banged up.Forward Filip Chytil, who has a history of injuries, exited with an upper-body injury and didn’t return.

His final shift ended with around four minutes left in the second frame.He wasn’t on the Blueshirts bench to start the third.Trocheck gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead with just over seven minutes remaining when he tipped in a Mika Zibanejad shot from in front of the net — occupying the power-play spot that usually belongs to an injured Chris Kreider — for his second goal of the game to snap a brutal 1-for-31 stretch from the unit.But K’Andre Miller committed a turnover tucked in the corner of his own end, and after some cycling, Thomas Harley capitalized on his shooting lane and scored with 2:39 remaining to force the extra time.Before the Rangers blew their pair of leads, plenty of promising signs emerged to suggest that strides in recent games weren’t flukes.

When the Rangers made their playoff run last year, this was the version of Lafreniere that carried them.And when they earned points in six of their opening seven matches to start the 2024-25 campaign, that rendition of Lafreniere ignited their offense with four goals and seven points.For most of the 32 games that followed, which coincided with the stretch following his massive seven-year extension, Lafreniere’s numbers plummeted.

He slumped through a 13-...