LOS ANGELES — It was as bizarre a goal as you’ll ever see and that Ryan McDonagh will ever score, that’s for sure.
With the Rangers up 2-1 and killing a penalty early in the third period here on Monday night, Brian Boyle won a right circle defensive zone draw and got the puck to McDonagh, who banked the puck off the far boards toward the L.A. net.
Kings’ goaltender Jonathan Quick came out to his left to play the puck, but somehow stumbled just below the circle, lost his stick, and then watched mortified as it caromed off his blocker into the empty net behind him for a shorthanded goal of approximately 180 feet at 4:39.
“It was a gift from God,” McDonagh said after the Blueshirts evened their record at 1-1 with a 3-1 victory. “I didn’t even see it, I didn’t know what happened.
“I was going up the ice on the PK and saw guys throw up their sticks.”
Quick, who shook his head in dismay several times, probably wanted to just throw up. A few moments later, he waved his glove at the crowd after receiving mock cheers for stopping Dan Girardi’s 180-footer.
“You guys are writing a story about that one goal?” a displeased Quick asked reporters rhetorically. “The stick fell out of my hand. I tried to stop it with my blocker.”
Henrik Lundqvist, at the other end, said he didn’t see the puck go in either. But he admitted feeling empathy for a fellow member of the goaltenders’ guild.
“I feel for him, though,” Lundqvist said. “As a goalie I know how he feels at that moment.
“But we’ll take it; it was a really big goal.”
The goal, meanwhile, was the first shorty of McDonagh’s NHL career.
“They don’t ask how,” he said.
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Taylor Pyatt was clipped in the face by the puck early in the first and did not play after the 4:00 mark of the period as he was attended to in the room. The winger returned for the start of the second and took a regular turn thereafter.
That injury, combined with the facial cut sustained by Ryan Callahan on the first shift of the second period, meant that the Blueshirts played shy one forward for essentially the first 40 minutes of the match.
Rick Nash led the club with six shots (on 10 attempts) in 17:55 while Brian Boyle had four in addition to his team-high five hits in 17:52. Boyle, who opened between Callahan and Pyatt, shifted to the wing for much of the opening two periods as coach Alain Vigneault juggled his combinations.
Rangers were 32-25 at the dots with Brad Richards going 6-2 on draws…Benoit Pouliot committed his second undisciplined penalty in two games.
Blueshirts lost first two games in regulation last season after going 0-1-2 in first three games in 2011-12. The 2010-11 club won the opener but then went 0-2-1 in the next three.