GLENDALE, Ariz. _ In the opener of their three-game Western road trip Friday night in Colorado, the Rangers took 10 penalties, and that was easy to point to as the biggest reason why they lost by five goals.
Sunday afternoon in Arizona, they cut down the number of penalties, but they still lost big, dropping a 5-0 decision to the struggling Coyotes at the Gila River Arena as Henrik Lundqvist got pulled from the net for the second straight start. Lundqvist, who sat out Friday's game after getting pulled in the third period of the 7-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, stopped 27 of 32 shots before being replaced by Alexandar Georgiev after allowing the fifth goal at 16:38 of the second. Georgiev stopped all eight shots he faced.
The loss was the third straight for the Rangers (they've been outscored 18-3 in those three games) and the shutout loss was their third of the season. They hit the halfway mark of the season at 17-17-7 after 41 games. Arizona is 18-21-3.
In contrast to Friday, when they had to kill three penalties in the opening period against the Avalanche, including a five-minute major for boarding given to Cody McLeod, the Rangers only had one first period penalty on Sunday, when Brendan Smith was sent off for an elbowing infraction at 6:37. The Coyotes scored on the ensuing power play, though, on a net front deflection by Conor Garland at 7:19. They added a second goal, by Mario Kempe, two minutes later, and, frankly the result was never in much question after that.
The Coyotes did, though, add three goals in the second period _ a second net front deflection by Garland, a wrister between the pads by Clayton Keller, and a rebound jam-in off a shot attempt that Lundqvist couldn't snare in his catching glove. It was after that goal where Rangers coach David Quinn pulled the plug on Lundqvist (12-11-7).
Rangers center Kevin Hayes, the team's second-leading scorer, sat out his second straight game with an upper body injury.
The road trip concludes Tuesday in Las Vegas, where the Rangers will take on the Vegas Golden Knights.
