Knights rally behind Hart, Eichel to beat Rangers in OT, 3-2

NEW YORK — Weirdness? There was no lack of it inside Madison Square Garden Sunday night.And maybe it’s because the New York Rangers simply struggle on their home ice.A set play late in overtime resulted in Jack Eichel beating Jonathan Quick on a breakaway with eight seconds remaining to give the Golden Knights a 3-2 come-from-behind win over the Blueshirts and stun the sellout crowd of 17,486.The OT was set up thanks to Tomas Hertl tying the game 2-2 with 51.3 seconds left in regulation, banging home a rebound of Mark Stone’s shot. And shortly before that, the teams skated 4-on-4 as Brett Howden and Will Borgen were sitting in the penalty box for roughing.And what was really strange was there was no stoppage of play in OT until 16.3 seconds were left, which meant Howden was unavailable. But as he exited the box, Bruce Cassidy told him to stay out there in what was now a 3-on-3 OT situation.Howden won the faceoff, Shea Theodore looked for Eichel, who was already clear of any Ranger, hit him in stride and Eichel took care of the rest, beating Quick with a nice backhand move for his 12th goal of the season as the Knights may be putting their OT woes behind them with their second straight OT/shootout win and fourth in a row overall to improve to 14-6-8 and 34 points.“Yeah, it was a little different,” Eichel said of the 4-on-4 OT mashup. “A little less ice to work with but none of it is possible if Howden doesn’t win the faceoff.”Cassidy said it wasn’t a set play per se as drawn up by the coaches.“That was Jack and Theo,” he said. “They know what they want to do with the puck if we win it and Howdy came up big to win the faceoff.”One thing we’re seeing from Vegas on this road trip early on is some excellent goaltending. Carter Hart delivered a strong performance 72 hours after he apparently aggravated a lower-body injury he had suffered in his debut Tuesday. He stopped a couple of breakaways, was strong in his crease when the Rangers challenged him in front and stopped 21 of the 23 shots he faced.Neither New York goal was his fault, particularly Alexis Lafreniere’s second-period laser that went over his shoulder and bar down so quickly it was in and out of the goal in the blink of an eye which put the Rangers up 2-1.“He kept us in it,” Cassidy said of Hart.  “Especially in that second period.”And as long as there are no physical setbacks as a result of having played a pair of OT games to start his return to the NHL, it appears to set up Hart to be in goal Thursday in Philadelphia when the Knights face his old team, the Flyers. Akira Schmid, who is coming off a 3-0 shutout of New Jersey Friday, figures to get the start Tuesday at UBS Arena against the Islanders.But after a good start —Howden scored 36 seconds into the contest — and a good ending with Hertl tying it late in regulation and Eichel winning it in OT, the Knights failed to keep their foot on the accelerator. They were outshot in the middle period 17-6 after limiting the Rangers to just three first-period shots.However, with hart keeping his team in it, Cassidy used a rare move late by playing four forwards — Eichel, Howden, Mark Stone, Mitch Marner and  one defenseman — Theodore in trying to swing the momentum back Vegas’ way.“We use Mitch back there on the power play so it wasn’t really strange for him,” Cassidy said of the formation he put over the boards prior to Hertl’s heroics. “We needed to try and generate some more chances.”Ultimately, the move paid off as the Rangers were unable to close it out and would lose in OT at the Garden for the second straight day after falling to Colorado Saturday afternoon.“We’ve lost some tough ones in OT this year so it’s nice to see us start to win a few,” Eichel said.