Rangers undone by questionable goalie interference penalties

The exact definition of goalie interference in the NHL is still at large.

Not only did the Rangers get the short end of the stick when it came to officiating in their home-opening 6-5 overtime loss Saturday night, but the club had not one, but two questionable goalie interference calls levied against them.

Victor Mancini appeared to score his first NHL goal from the top of the zone in the second period before the referees immediately waved it off.

They called goalie interference on Matt Rempe, who was posted up at the net front and barely had his heels trail into the blue crease.

Peter Laviolette challenged the ruling on the play, which the Rangers head coach said was because he didn’t see any contact made.

If anything, Utah goalie Connor Ingram initiated the contact with Rempe.

The Rangers lost the challenge and were forced to go on the penalty kill as a result.

“Just didn’t look like there was contact to me,” Laviolette said. “I understand the backside of his heels were on the line in the blue paint, I get that. I believe you’re allowed to be through the paint, you can’t interfere with the goaltender. You can’t take him out of play.”

Later in the middle frame, Will Cuylle was penalized for goalie interference for the second time in as many games.

The second-year Ranger and Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, engaged in a puck battle, both rammed into Ingram, who ventured all the way out to the left faceoff circle to try and knock the puck away.

“I saw nothing,” Laviolette said of the play. “I saw Will battling somebody else for the puck and if you really slow it down, both players hit the goalie. The goalie is 15-feet out of the net. I don’t think either one of the players who were going for the puck were looking at the goalie. For me, that was incidental contact.”

The Rangers hosted the Utah Hockey Club at Madison Square Garden for the first time on Saturday.

Established on April 18, 2024, when the NHL Board of Governors granted an expansion franchise in Salt Lake City to NBA Jazz owner Ryan Smith, the Utah Hockey Club was essentially created from splitting the Arizona Coyotes franchise in half.

Utah is officially considered an expansion team, not a relocated Coyotes team.

Smith acquired all the hockey assets of the Coyotes, an organization that is now inactive after suspending hockey operations.

Arizona consistently failed to secure an arena with long-term stability, which forced the club to play at Mullett Arena — a college-level building on Arizona State University’s campus — for the past two seasons.

Former Ranger Dominic Moore, who played a total of five years in New York, also joined Utah’s broadcast team as an analyst ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Igor Shesterkin got the starting nod in the home opener on Saturday, marking the Russian netminder’s third consecutive season appearing in at least the first two games of the season.

“There’s always a plan,” Laviolette said of how he plans to deploy Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick to start the 2024-25 campaign. “Quickie’s working hard out here, but there is a plan. The schedule is not overly taxing right now. We’ll have our guys ready when it’s time for them to go.”

Making 20 saves on 26 shots in the overtime loss, Shesterkin fell to 1-0-1 to start the season.