But a John Tavares power play goal at 11:13 made it 4-2 and put the game out of reach for the Rangers.
The Rangers' power play went 0-for-6, with the penalty kill allowing one goal in two chances.
"We had empty nets, their guys made saves, we hit shafts of sticks, their goaltender made some good saves. Did everything but score," Derek Stepan said of the power play. "We shot everything. We missed some nets. We shot everything we got pucks back and we were hard on the pucks and we made plays and just weren't able to convert."
The Rangers played the final 33:22 of the game with just 10 forwards, making the difficult task of coming back in the game that much more challenging.
"It's not a situation that you see a whole lot, but I thought guys battled real hard up front," Stepan said. "We only had 10 guys so you're going every third shift. I think we have to find a way to win the special teams battle each night. We lost it tonight, but a lot of positives to take from tonight."
The loss of Nash and Puempel comes at a time when the Rangers are already without Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich, and came on a night when they played without leading goal scorer Michael Grabner, who missed the game following the death of his grandmother. He is expected to return to the lineup Thursday in Winnipeg.