Kings’ 4-3 shootout setback to Rangers isn’t a total loss

From New York

Kings goaltender Jonathan Bernier said he lost the New York Rangers’ second goal in the crowd, and he nearly lost his wits when Mats Zuccarello faked and scored what became the decisive shootout tally in the Rangers’ wild 4-3 victory at Madison Square Garden.

Still, the Kings gained more than they lost Thursday, precious though a second point for a victory would have been.

“It’s so tight. That one point’s huge,” said Dustin Brown, whose two-goal performance equaled the number of goals he scored in his previous 17 games.

Playing on the second successive night, the Kings showed a strong resolve in erasing deficits of 2-1 and 3-2 in a physically punishing game, pulling even the last time with 2:21 left in the third period on a sharp-angle shot by Brown that caromed off the back of goalie Henrik Lundqvist’s head.

They extended their point streak to 11 games (8-0-3), tying a club record set in the 1973-74 season, and earned the 13th point of a possible 16 on their road trek. They also jumped into eighth in the West, one of four teams at 68 points.

Equally important, they gained a sense of what they can achieve by maintaining the defiant attitude they showed Thursday in a hostile and emotionally charged arena.

“The guys really battled hard. Back to back is never easy,” Bernier said. “To find a way to go to the shootout after trailing twice in the game, it was a great effort.”

Bernier was beaten on a deft move by Erik Christensen in the first round of the shootout and in the second round by Zuccarello, who slowed, deked, and slid the puck past a befuddled Bernier.

Jarret Stoll, who scored the only goal in the Kings’ 4-3 shootout victory at Columbus on Wednesday, beat Lundqvist on Thursday with a high snap shot. But after New York’s Wojtek Wolski shot wide to start the third round, Lundqvist got enough of Anze Kopitar’s wrist shot to repel it.

“I hate the shootout. I don’t even watch it,” said Kings Coach Terry Murray said, whose team is 7-2 in the tiebreaker.

Bernier smiled ruefully in describing Zuccarello’s goal. “He got me right there. He made a nice move. I just tried to throw my stick out there and I hit his skate,” Bernier said. “I got to be better, that’s for sure.”

The Kings scored first, with Brown doing a pirouette at 15:25 of the first period to register their first power-play goal in five games, and the Rangers matched that when Ryan Callahan swatted home a bouncing puck at 4:01 of the second period.

After a third-period turnover by the Kings, Marian Gaborik zoomed up the right side and shot from about 35 feet. The puck knuckled inside the far post at 6:10, to Bernier’s embarrassment.

“I lost it in the stands and I didn’t know where it was,” he said, “and those type of goals, especially at the end of the season when you’re battling for a playoff spot, you can’t give up those goals, that’s for sure.”

The Kings tied it at 7:50 when Brad Richardson, his helmet knocked off by a hit, dug the puck out and fed Matt Greene for a slap shot that deflected past Lundqvist. Artem Anisimov got enough of a Brandon Dubinsky shot for it to glance in and put the Rangers ahead at 16:52 but Brown scored from behind the goal line on Lundqvist to keep the Kings alive.

They killed a double-minor called on Alexei Ponikarovsky at the end of regulation time and have killed 33 of 35 disadvantages over 11 games but they were outperformed in the shootout as Lundqvist earned his 200th career victory, the fifth Ranger goalie to do so.

The Kings have one “real” road game left in this odyssey, Saturday against the New York Islanders. They’ll come home before playing at Anaheim next Wednesday.

“It was a huge point for us not to get,” Brown said, “but we’ve just got to take the point and refocus because we’ve had a really good road trip and we can make it a great one with a win on the Island.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com

twitter.com/helenenothelen