Mika Zibanejad sits out game as Rangers fall to Ducks

Franchise icon Chris Kreider and former captain Jacob Trouba returned to Madison Square Garden on Monday for the first time since both were traded to Anaheim, but Rangers center Mika Zibanejad, Kreider’s closest friend on the team, wasn’t in the lineup after being suspended for disciplinary reasons.

In the end, the Garden crowd, many of whom wore Kreider jerseys, got neither a goal from the opponent they came to salute nor a victory for the home team they support every night.

Instead, Anaheim’s Cutter Gauthier had two third-period goals to break a tie and power the Ducks to a 4-1 victory, their first win in three games in the metropolitan area.

Gauthier’s first goal came on a power play at 5:51 of the third, just as a hooking penalty to Will Borgen was expiring, on a snap shot from the top of the left circle that beat Igor Shesterkin (22 saves) high on the stick side.

Gauthier then scored into an empty net at 19:38. With Shesterkin back in the goal, Pavel Mintyukov scored with 2.9 seconds remaining to set off the Garden boobirds.

The Rangers, as they’ve often done this season, said they were happy with their effort. In this case, they said, the difference was the special teams. They allowed a power-play goal and a shorthanded goal, and their own power play went 0-for-4.

“We had some looks five-on-five,’’ coach Mike Sullivan said. “Obviously, the difference in the game is special teams. They get one [on the power play], we don’t. And then we give up one on the power play . . . So at the end of the day, that’s the difference.’’

“It basically came down to special teams today,’’ J.T. Miller said. “The penalty kill was really good today. We just give up one there at the end. But the power play wasn’t quite good. Wasn’t sharp enough. And we gave one up.’’

Of course, the power play was missing a couple of important people: point man Adam Fox, who is on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury, and Zibanejad, who Sullivan said was punished for missing a meeting before the team’s morning skate Monday.

Fox has been out since Nov. 29 and the Rangers have gone 3-2-2 in the seven games he’s missed. The power play is 2-for-16 since he went down.

The two goals the Rangers did score in that time came with Zibanejad playing the point in place of Fox. So playing without him Monday was a severe handicap for the Rangers.

“We’ve got a lot of moving parts on [the power play], based on the injuries that we’ve had, just the personnel group that we had in the lineup tonight,’’ Sullivan said. “And obviously we’d like to settle on something until Foxy gets back in the lineup that gives us more of a semblance of consistency.’’

Sullivan was asked if this was the first time Zibanejad, who lives in Manhattan, had missed a meeting. He chose not to answer.

“I’m not going to get into specifics on why we make decisions the way we made them,’’ he said. “We believe strongly in a process that we’ve put in place here for our team, and it’s as simple as that . . . We have a certain set of expectations that we all hold ourselves accountable to, and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about.”

A shorthanded goal by Jackson LaCombe at 7:18 of the second period gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead. They were killing a five-on-three power play at the time.

Trouba earned the second assist on the goal, collecting a rebound off Artemi Panarin’s shot and firing a clearing pass off the boards to Ryan Poehling, whose shot was saved by Shesterkin. LaCombe had a couple of whacks at the rebound and put it in for his fifth goal of the season.

The Rangers tied it on a goal by defenseman Matthew Robertson at 16:18. Robertson’s shot was deflected up and over goalie Lukas Dostal (26 saves) by former Ranger Frank Vatrano and went in despite the goalie’s efforts to turn around and bat it away.

The goal initially was waved off because of an apparent high stick by Vincent Trocheck, but after a video check, it was determined that Trocheck never touched the puck, so it stood.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

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