COLUMBUS, Ohio _ The Rangers are outmanned on most nights as it is. Minus their No. 2 center and two of their more reliable defensemen against a likely playoff team coached by old friend John Tortorella, well, that's a tough challenge.
They gave it a go, though. On a night when they trailed by three goals with little more than five minutes to play, goals by Mats Zuccarello and Jimmy Vesey gave them a chance to come back. They couldn't pull it off, however. Nick Foligno's second goal of the game, with 1:46 to play, took the air out of the Rangers' sails and sent them to a 7-5 loss Sunday.
The loss dropped the Rangers to 18-20-7 (43 points). Columbus, which entered the game in third place in the Metropolitan Division, is 27-15-3 (57 points).
Rangers coach David Quinn caught some by surprise with his decision to start rookie Alexandar Georgiev in goal instead of Henrik Lundqvist. Georgiev had played and got the win in Saturday's 2-1 victory over the Islanders in Brooklyn.
"He just played real well (Saturday), and back-to-back, we wanted to give him a chance and give Hank a little mental breather, that's all," Quinn said when asked the reason behind choosing to go with Georgiev, who made 33 saves against Columbus.
The Rangers got an early lead for Georgiev, when Ryan Strome buried a two-on-one pass from Filip Chytil at 4:34 of the first period, beating goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who returned to action for the Blue Jackets after sitting out a two-game suspension for what the Columbus organization called "an incident" that "failed to meet expectations and values."
But the Blue Jackets tied it just 34 seconds later, when Artemi Panarin _ the soon-to-be free agent who is presumed to be a Rangers' target this summer _ hammered a loose puck past Georgiev from the slot off a Columbus faceoff win.
The Blue Jackets took a 2-1 lead at 8:55 when former Ranger Anthony Duclair jetted wide around Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, then cut in from the right circle and chipped a forehand shot over Georgiev's shoulder for his 10th goal.
Chris Kreider tied it for the Rangers with a four-on-four goal at 17:56 of the period, but the Blue Jackets outscored the Rangers 3-1 in the second period to take control.
First, Cam Atkinson reached out and got his stick blade on a Zach Werenski shot, tipping it past Georgiev for his 26th goal, at 14:00, and Lukas Sedlak blew past Brett Howden to slam in a feed from behind the net by Oliver Bjorkstrand to make it 4-2 at 17:41. Mats Zuccarello got the Rangers back within 4-3 with his sixth goal at 18:58, but off a mad net-front scramble as the period came to a close, Brendan Smith lost track of Foligno, who got free at the back post to tap in a pass from Ryan Murray with two seconds left in the period.
