The Calgary Flames and New York Rangers clashed in Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, with both teams playing on the back half of back-to-back sets with travel. The game was pretty competitive, but a five-on-three power play and a few key defensive lapses were the difference in this contest.

The Flames dropped their second game of this road trip in as many nights, losing 4-0 to the Rangers.

The first period was pretty even. But the Rangers got an opportunity late in the period, as Dustin Wolf took a puck-over-glass minor and then Olli Maatta was called for cross-checking.

On the five-on-three advantage, a nice bit of puck movement by the Blueshirts led to an Alexis Lafreniere redirect around the Flames’ net that beat Wolf to give the home side a 1-0 lead.

First period shots were 9-9.

The Flames tried to get back into this game, but midway through the second frame, the Rangers added to their lead.

A bad line change led to Zayne Parekh and Connor Zary being out-manned in their own zone. Parekh played his man, but Zary was caught in no-man’s land and Tye Kartye found Conor Sheary near the far post for a tap-in to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.

Late in the period, the Flames got caught chasing the puck in their own zone, leading to Gabe Perreault finding Lafreniere for the back-door tap-in to make it 3-0 Rangers.

Second period shots were 12-9 Rangers.

The Rangers managed the puck quite well in this period.

Late in the third period, Parekh was knocked down at the Rangers’ blueline, and Perreault headed up ice with Lafreniere on a two-on-one. Lafreniere buried a shot past Wolf to give the Rangers a 4-0 lead.

The Rangers held on for the win, 4-0.

Third period shots were 7-3 Rangers.

The Flames weren’t all that bad, but collectively they weren’t all that good, either. They couldn’t make key offensive plays at key offensive moments, and the Rangers could. Heck, you could argue that the second and third Rangers’ goals were sort of self-inflicted, caused by some rough decision-making and defensive coverage by the road team.

The Flames didn’t get chased out of MSG by any stretch of the imagination, but they didn’t do enough to earn a win.

Matt Coronato had so many scoring chances. He could not score, though.

Honorable mention: Zayne Parekh was minus-2, but I thought he made a lot of really smart plays with and without the puck. This game was a big step in the right direction for him. He did get shoved around a bit, though.

The Flames could not buy a goal. That late Rangers goal to make it 3-0 in the second period was a killer.

The Flames debuted a five-man second power play unit featuring Connor Zary, Mikael Backlund, Ryan Strome, Victor Olofsson and Yegor Sharangovich.

Via Daily Faceoff’s Jonny Lazarus, NCAA leading scorer and Flames prospect Ethan Wyttenbach was at this game.

Join Robert Munnich and myself right after the game for After Burner!

The Flames (25-32-7) return to action on Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils.