Rangers’ new philosophy yields familiar results in loss to Flames

A lot of shots, just not a lot of good ones.

The Rangers peppered the Flames with 45 shots, but still managed to lose 4-1 on Sunday night at the Garden.

With the new philosophy of shooting more and crashing the net, the Blueshirts were able to create an ample amount of decent scoring chances. But they struggled to beat goalie David Rittich and lost for the sixth time in the first eight games of this rebuilding season.

The Rangers (2-5-1) had three days without a game preceding this contest, having previously lost a 4-3 overtime game to the Capitals in Washington on Wednesday night. The Flames (5-3-0) had flown across the country after a 5-3 loss to the Predators at home on Friday, and were beginning a two-game road trip.

The third period started with Calgary holding a commanding 3-0 lead, with two of their goals coming from Johnny Gaudreau. The terrific 25-year-old has a history with Rangers first-year coach David Quinn, who was the coach at Boston University while Gaudreau was winning the Hobey Baker Award as the best player in college hockey at rival Boston College.

“We faced some pretty high-end players in the last three, four games, and he’s no different,” Quinn had said before the game. “You have to be aware of where he is on the ice.”

Thankfully for the Rangers, they managed not to allow Rittich, a 26-year-old with 24 previous games of NHL experience, to record his first shutout. Mika Zibanejad scored a power-play goal at 6:41 of the third period to make it 3-1, the third goal of the season for the first-line center.

With just under two minutes remaining in regulation, Rasmus Andersson nailed Mats Zuccarello in the open ice, and Brady Skjei took exception, jumping Andersson. As Andersson was turtled on the ice, Garnet Hathaway got a breakaway and scored his second goal of the game to make it 4-1.

Gaudreau got the Flames on the board at 17:00 of the first period, when he managed a spinning backhand from a crowded area in front, beating Henrik Lundqvist stick-side for a 1-0 lead.

After some defensive breakdowns allowed Hathaway to tap-in a pass from T.J. Brodie at 12:21 of the second period for a 2-0 lead, Gaudreau extended it to 3-0 when he danced around in the slot and beat Lundqvist with a quick wrist shot at 14:55.

The Blueshirts were stuck with that three-goal deficit going into the third period.