NEW YORK - Talk about tough sledding.
Nothing would come easy - and not even the MVP himself could help salvage a victory on this night.
Though he sure did try.
Jacob Markstrom - who was named the NHL's First Star of the Week earlier in the day - had another sensational night with 29 saves, but the Flames dropped a 2-0 decision to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, halting their winning streak at four.
Worse, the Flames lost a key player to injury in the process.
Midway through the first period, heart-and-soul winger Jakob Pelletier was buried into the boards along the Flames bench by Rangers captain Jacob Trouba. Pelletier, who returned at the beginning of this trip after missing four months following shoulder surgery, was slow to his feet and could barely sling himself over the boards without help of his teammates.
The 22-year-old was favouring his left shoulder for the next few minutes, before exiting the game at the first TV timeout.
He did not return with what was officially deemed an upper-body injury.
"It's brutal," said Rasmus Andersson. "We all love the kid. He's a great guy and brings so much energy to our room. It sucks. Hopefully he'll be alright."
Head Coach Ryan Huska did not have an update on Pelletier's condition after the game, but did say "it didn't" look overly serious from his perspective on the bench - but also cautioned that he hadn't yet spoken to Head Sports Physiotherapist Kent Kobelka.
Will Cuylle and Jimmy Vesey scored for the Blueshirts - the latter into the empty net with 18 seconds to play.
"We kind of pushed - maybe the last five, 10 minutes," Andersson said. "Other than that, pretty bad game from our side. Without (Markstrom), it was 5, 6-0 maybe."
The Flames were a step behind early in this one and while the shot clock didn’t show much of a discrepancy (4-4 through the opening 16:25), the Rangers had a decided territorial advantage that forced Markstrom to make a series of 10-bellers to keep the game knotted.
Vincent Trochek was in the heart of the action – first, taking a pass from Artemi Panarin down the wing and bringing it hard to the net on the backhand, but Markstrom stood tall to reject the winger in tight.
Moments later, Panarin up set Trochek up for a point-blank chance at the side of the net, but Markstrom came up with one of his best stops of the year, lunging across and snaring it with the glove as The Garden faithful were halfway into a goal dance.
Somehow, Markstrom one-upped himself only seconds after that, robbing Blake Wheeler with the rapier-like glove hand once again, and forcing the former 90-point man to look skyward before slamming his stick on the ice in disgust.
Call it the Markstrom Effect.
And it’s happened a lot this year as the Flames' top 'tender.
Shots on goal favoured the Rangers 11-6, but it was the efficiency of their zone time that truly stood out, as the homeside carried a 9-1 edge in high-danger looks at all strengths into the middle frame.
"How many Grade-A's did Marky save in the first?" Andersson said. "Second period, maybe a little bit better, but still not good enough. Third, for them to have a one-goal lead, we started to push a little bit and get a few good looks but don't manage to get in it.
"Just one of those nights where there was one good player on our team."
Connor Zary rang one off the post as the action picked up for the Flames early in the second, but it remained an uphill climb.
Tempers flared with 11:09 to play in the period when all five skaters on the ice grabbed a dance partner after some crashing and banging occurred around the Flames net. Two Flames and three Rangers were ushered off, giving the visitors their first powerplay of the night.
However, the man-up was quickly nullified when Jonathan Huberdeau took down Trouba to prevent a shorthanded scoring chance.
At 12:31, the dam finally broke.
Kaapo Kakko showed great speed down the right side before cutting hard to the net and putting a forehand shot into the pads. A scramble ensued and with Markstrom splayed dangerously on his side, Cuylle stopped up in the paint and chopped home the loose puck to give the Rangers a lead they would not relinquish.
The Flames pressed late and Blake Coleman, in particular, had a couple of great looks on Igor Shesterkin in the dying minutes, but they were unable to hit paydirt.
"For whatever reason, it wasn't our night tonight," Coleman said. "You go into this trip against some good teams and if you said you're going to win 75% on the trip, I think you'd take that all day. But losing this one just means that we've got to make up the ground somewhere else, so (it's) time to take care of it at home."
