Henrik Lundqvist
Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

On a night of celebration, the New York Rangers could not come through losing their seventh straight game.

  • Detroit Red Wings 3 (26-26-10, 62 points)
  • New York Rangers 2 (27-30-6, 60 points)
  • DET Goals: Andreas Athanasiou (12), Darren Helm (8), Trevor Daley (7)
  • NYR Goals: J.T. Miller (13), Jesper Fast (10)
  • NHL, Final (OT), Boxscore
  • Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

It was the night that the New York Rangers honored legend Jean Ratelle.

The Rangers looked like they could break their losing streak. But that was not the case despite a strong comeback effort as the Red Wings went on to win 3-2 in overtime extending the Rangers losing streak to seven.

It was the first official game that the team played since the trade of Rick Nash. The Rangers sent Nash to the Boston Bruins for a package including Ryan Spooner who made his Rangers debut against Detroit.

With all of the hoopla, there was still a game to be played.

Right out of the gate you knew this was going to be a long night. Jimmy Howard made an incredible save robbing Chris Kreider who was looking to score his first goal since returning from injury.

Howard always seems to play the best games of his career against the Rangers and this one was no different. On the other end of the ice, it was Henrik Lundqvist making his return to the lineup after backing up rookie Alexandar Georgiev that last two games.

The strong early goaltending battle continued in this one. After Kreider just missed on a two-on-zero, Howard would stop Kevin Hayes alone in front.

Of course with all of the great goaltending in the first, the first goal of the game would be one that Lundqvist might want back.

Detroit would add to that lead early in the second as John Gilmour had an uh-oh moment. Gilmour fell down at the blueline leading to a breakaway and a 2-0 deficit.

But newly acquired Ryan Spooner would make his presence known on the power-play.

Spooner picked up his first point as a Ranger with a great pass to J.T. Miller and the Rangers looked to have some life in them. Then they didn’t.

But video coach Jerry Dineen had a great find as he was reviewing the play. He saw that Detroit was offside and told head coach Alain Vigneault to challenge the play. The Rangers would win the challenge and only trail 2-1 after two.

You couldn’t have asked to have a more impressive debut than Spooner had. Watch his puck handling skills as he sets up Jesper Fast for the game-tying goal. It’s fitting that Fast tied was the one to tie the game as he will go down as the last Ranger to ever to wear the number 19.

This would go to overtime and Detroit would take the winners point on a deflection with 5.6 seconds to go.

The Rangers will be off until Wednesday night when they begin their Western Canada trip. Also, the trade deadline is Monday and more deals could be in the works.

Dominick is a graduate of Canisius College. He has covered the Rangers for the last seven seasons and the Yankees for the last four.