Ducks not happy about loss

Henrik Lundqvist thought the New York Rangers’ winning goal was anything but a thing of beauty. The Ducks were not really sure it should have even counted.

Despite the varying opinions, Scott Gomez’s chip shot from the side of the net found its way past Jonas Hiller, ending a tie and lifting the Rangers to a 4-2 victory Tuesday night.

“It didn’t look good,” Lundqvist, the Rangers’ goaltender, said of his team’s power play that somehow clicked twice. “We really struggled on the power play, but two goals went in.”

Nikolai Zherdev passed the puck onto Markus Naslund’s stick and he deftly slid it to Gomez at the right post for a shot that got past Hiller for the winner with 7:21 left.

“They made a play in the crease area and Naslund backed into our goalie and moved the puck over to the other side with both feet in the crease,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “Gomez was almost behind the net when he tapped it in.”

Naslund, who scored a power-play goal in the first period, had his back to Hiller, but the goalie put more blame on himself for letting Gomez’s shot sneak through.

“He was outside the crease, I think,” Hiller said. “I should still be able to stop it.”

The Ducks, 1-2 on a five-game trip, got goals from Corey Perry and rookie Bobby Ryan. Jonas Hiller stopped 26 shots, giving a break to Western Conference All-Star starter Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Hiller was pulled for an extra skater with 1:25 left, while Anaheim was on a power play, but Blair Betts sealed the win with a short-handed, empty-net goal with 33.9 seconds to go.

“Right now, we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot,” Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger said. “It’s not fun.”