When you can’t string together wins, it’s often due to a lack of consistency. In a frustrating 5-4 overtime loss to the Stars, the Rangers fell short of winning two straight games due to a costly mistake from K’Andre Miller. With the Rangers leading the Stars 4-3 on the strength of Vincent Trocheck’s power-play goal less than five minutes earlier, Miller’s slight hesitation behind his own net led to a turnover with Thomas Harley tying the game with 3:39 left in regulation.

Despite going for it late, the Rangers were victimized in overtime by Stars captain Jamie Benn, who tipped in a Jason Robertson pass in front to beat Jonathan Quick at 2:17. The Stars capitalized on a four-on-three power play to get the win. It came with Artemi Panarin in the penalty box for a soft hooking minor on Wyatt Johnston. It wasn’t exactly a great call for overtime.

On a night when Panarin’s line finally snapped out of it by combining for seven points at five-on-five to spark a 3-0 lead in the first period, it was their best player who skated off the ice disappointed by the end result. Panarin finished with three assists, including a pair of primary helpers on two Alexis Lafreniere goals that ended a 13-game scoring drought. He also helped set up Trocheck’s first goal.

Unfortunately, the bad penalty cost the Rangers a valuable point in the standings. Combined with the Blue Jackets defeating the Penguins in overtime, the Rangers trail the Jackets by four points for the second wildcard. With nobody pulling away, they remain very much alive for the playoffs. Keep an eye on the Red Wings, who won their fifth consecutive game to pull within two points of the final wildcard. The Lightning hold the first wildcard with 44 points after ending a four-game losing streak by getting a win over the Hurricanes.

Unless they can start winning consistently, it’s hard to take the Rangers seriously. By blowing 3-0 and 4-3 leads, they fell to 18-20-2. Even though they still have the most regulation wins (18) over all the other teams competing with them for the final playoff berth, they remain a very flawed team that’s proven incapable of putting together a good stretch. Their last winning streak came almost two months ago when they won three straight between Nov. 14-19 over the Sharks, Kraken, and Canucks. Since then, they haven’t even won two in a row. At that time, they were 12-4-1. Since that point, they’ve gone 6-16-1 to become one of the league’s worst teams.

Proving how vulnerable they are, the Rangers went from dominating the Stars by getting the first three goals to giving up the last two in a strange opening period. After getting hemmed in their zone early, they grabbed the lead when Lafreniere took a Panarin feed and drove home a wrist shot that went high short side past Jake Oettinger at 6:56 for his first goal since Dec. 8.

Less than three minutes later, Trocheck doubled up the lead when he redirected a Will Borgen shot for his 12th. Not even two minutes later, Panarin sent Lafreniere ahead for a breakaway with him going to a backhand through the five-hole on Oettinger to make it 3-0 with 8:36 left.

But before fans could relax, Matt Duchene finished off a pass from Esa Lindell that cut it to 3-1 over 90 seconds later. With Braden Schneider off for holding Logan Stankoven, Evgenii Dadonov steered in a rebound to suddenly make it 3-2 with 4:04 remaining. Even though they still led by a goal, the Rangers were outshot 19-8 in the period.

On an extended shift that saw them pinned in their own zone, Borgen lost his stick. While the Stars continued to attack, nobody gave him a stick until Filip Chytil finally did at the exact moment Robertson scored his 10th to tie the game at three with 6:46 remaining in the second period. Borgen went 43 seconds playing without a stick. The cardinal rule is that a forward is supposed to give the defenseman a stick as soon as possible. Instead, the communication breakdown cost them a goal.

In the third, both Robertson and Trocheck missed on wide open chances to put their team ahead. Following a Will Cuylle hit, Robertson was left all alone in front but missed wide on a tip in. On the opposite end, Trocheck was all set up by Brett Berard. But he fanned completely. He’d make up for it on the power play.

With Harley off for a delay of game, the Rangers stuck with their top unit. During a stoppage, Peter Laviolette called a timeout to rest his number one unit. With Chytil out for the period due to another upper-body injury, he had no choice. Following the break, Mika Zibanejad took an Adam Fox feed up top and let go of a wrist shot that Trocheck tipped past Oettinger to put the Rangers back ahead with 7:04 remaining.

Playing more aggressively, they continued to forecheck looking for more offense. Trocheck came close but hit the goalpost. Instead of going up by two, that left the door open for another forgettable moment. For reasons only known to him, Miller held onto the puck behind the net. He had plenty of time to make a play but instead allowed the desperate Stars to force a turnover. Sam Steel fed Harley in the slot for a wrist shot that went high on Quick to tie the score at four at 17:21.

Even with the game tied again, the Rangers went for it. But Oettinger only had to stop one shot down the stretch. For only the second time all season, the Rangers went to overtime. It was their first one since losing their home opener 6-5 to the Utah Hockey Club on Oct. 12. It was just the Stars’ fourth such game.

After Panarin was called for hooking Johnston 31 seconds into overtime, the Rangers tried to kill off the penalty. Following some good defensive work from both Zibanejad and Trocheck, the Stars finally got set up late on the power play. Harley made a good diagonal feed over to Robertson, who then found Benn in front for the easy tip home that ended the game. Benn gave Fox a nudge to get open for the game-winner.

That ended another disappointing night. The Rangers are home to face the Devils on Thursday night.