Jackson LaCombe scored a short-handed goal assisted by Jacob Trouba, the former Rangers captain who was playing his first game at The Garden since New York traded him to Anaheim last season on Dec. 6, 2024.
Ducks forward Chris Kreider was also playing against his former team for the first time. The Rangers traded Kreider to Anaheim on June 12. He spent the first 13 seasons of his NHL career with the Rangers.
Anaheim (20-12-1) ended a two-game losing streak, while New York has dropped four of its past five (1-2-2).
Matthew Robertson scored and Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves for the Rangers (16-14-4), who had a four-game home point streak end (2-0-2). They fell to 4-9-3 at home and were held to one goal or less for the ninth time in 16 home games.
Gauthier gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead at 5:51 of the third period, scoring at the end of a Ducks power play.
Beckett Sennecke snuck past Rangers forward J.T. Miller to carry the puck into the offensive zone on the right side. He sent a pass across to Gauthier, who scored from above the left hash marks with a blocker side shot past Shesterkin.
Gauthier scored an empty-net goal to make it 3-1 at 19:38 before Pavel Mintyukov scored with Shesterkin in the net at 19:57 for the 4-1 final.
LaCombe scored a short-handed goal at 7:18 of the second period to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead. It came six seconds after the Rangers had a 5-on-3 advantage.
Trouba moved the puck out of the defensive zone while the Ducks were still killing the 5-on-3. Ryan Poehling got to it in the neutral zone and drove the puck to the net, angling his body to get a shot on goal. The rebound came to LaCombe, who scored on his second attempt.
New York made it 1-1 on Robertson's goal at 16:18. The officials called it a good goal after initiating a video review to determine how the puck went into the net-- off Vincent Trocheck's high stick or Dostal's. The video showed it was in fact Dostal who batted the puck into the net.
