CALGARY – The Rangers have had trouble starting games lately. They gave up an opening-minute goal in the final minute of their last game, Tuesday, in Vancouver and have allowed an opening-minute goal four times this season.

They didn’t do that against the Calgary Flames on Thursday, but their start to the game was still pretty awful. They were absolutely dominated in possession and shots on target throughout the first half of the match, falling behind by two goals before a rally at the end of the second period got them back on level terms.

But Calgary’s Connor Zary scored with 9:25 left to break the tie and lift the Flames to a 3-2 win for their third straight victory. The Rangers’ win streak ended at three.

They conclude their longest road trip of four games on Saturday night in Edmonton against the Oilers.

The 6-foot, 178-pound Zary fought off a check from the 6-1, 215-pound Kaapo Kakko – who had been shifted from wing to center and was playing center for the first time in his NHL career – and raised a shot over the shoulder of goaltender Igor Shesterkin (46 saves) for his fourth goal of the season.

The Rangers (12-5-1) suffered a scare when they lost No. 1 center Mika Zibanejad in the final 7:30 of the first period after he was hit with a shot by Calgary defenseman Rasmus Andersson while killing a penalty in the first period. period. As soon as he was hit, Zibanejad doubled over in pain, skated straight to the bench and went straight to the locker room. But he returned to start the second.

The Rangers fell behind 1-0 at 7:26 of the first, on a goal by Long Island’s Matt Coronato, who hurriedly took a pass from Yegor Sharangovich just inside the blue line and used Braden Schneider as a screen. and fired past Shesterkin for his sixth goal of the season.

They made it 2-0 at 8:29 of the second on a power-play goal by Sharangovich, who hammered a one-timer from the right circle past Shesterkin for his third goal of the season. The Rangers challenged the goal, claiming there was a handpass prior to the shot. But the challenge was unsuccessful, meaning Rangers had to kill another penalty. They did.

At that point, the Flames (11-6-3) crushed the Rangers. They had outscored them 20-5 in the first period and the shots kept piling up until they outscored the Rangers 35-11 with 8:30 to go. But then the momentum changed and the Rangers started getting some shots on Calgary goalie Dustin Wolf. Artemi Panarin created chances all night with some nifty stickhandles and precise cross-ice passes, leading to shots from his linemates, Alexis Lafreniere and Vincent Trocheck.

It was Lafreniere who finally got the Rangers on the board, as he collected the rebound of a Jacob Trouba shot and put it past Wolf to make it 2-1 at 4:37. Calgary called a timeout at that point, perhaps considering a challenge, but decided against it.

Then, during the next shift, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette sent in a makeshift line of Will Cuylle, Kakko and Jimmy Vesey, with Kakko, normally a right wing, playing at center. The line immediately provided the equalizer, as Cuylle redirected a K’Andre Miller shot past Wolf for his seventh goal of the season, at 16:53.

Then Laviolette kept going while Kakko played in the middle with Cuylle and Vesey or Reilly Smith on the right wing. Jonny Brodzinski, who had started the game at center for Cuylle and Kakko, didn’t play much in the third period, and when he did it was on the right wing on the fourth line with Adam Edstrom and Sam Carrick.

Colin Stephenson covers Rangers for Newsday. He has covered the NHL and virtually every sports team in the New York metropolitan area for more than two decades.