VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Rangers had been the Comeback Kids through the start of the season. But on Tuesday night at Rogers Arena, the Canucks stole the title.

Vancouver scored two goals within the first 5:19 of the third period to tie the game and force overtime before former Blueshirt J.T. Miller buried his second goal of the night 2:22 into the extra period to hand the Rangers a 3-2 loss, just their second on the road this season.

It was a special teams battle from start to finish, and the Rangers committed a majority of the infractions with six penalties — three in the second period. The Rangers, however, were granted a prime five-on-three opportunity for 36 seconds toward the end of the third period.

But Canucks netminder Thatcher Demko made save after save despite losing his stick and blocker. Demko, who finished with 20 saves, brought Rogers Arena to its feet.

“You’ve got to give Vancouver credit,” Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said of the failed two-man advantage chance. “They blocked a lot of shots and their goalie — I think he lost his stick and his blocker. He made a couple of key saves. But guys were shooting the puck and that’s a positive, I like when [Artemi] Panarin is shooting the puck like he was tonight.”

The Canucks won their first game at home this season on a night when Travis Hamonic made his season debut after a six-week leave of absence without pay for what the former Islanders defenseman said were “personal reasons.”

Despite committing three straight penalties in the second period, the Rangers’ penalty kill and goalie Igor Shesterkin were virtually impenetrable. In addition to generating some shorthanded offense, the penalty kill was a perfect 6-for-6, which was a major positive the Rangers took away from the loss.

“I thought all the [PK] guys did an amazing job sacrificing, playing the system,” said Ryan Strome, who earned a secondary assist on Panarin’s power-play goal in the second. “They got a great power play. I think they were getting a bit frustrated, which is a good sign. Our power play was good tonight too.

“It would’ve been nice to get one on the five-on-three, but a lot of great effort tonight, especially on the special teams, for sure.”

When the Canucks had to go shorthanded, the Rangers seized their opportunities.

After a defensive play from Adam Fox turned into a smooth offensive-zone entry, Panarin fed Mika Zibanejad for the 1-0 lead at 2:33 of the first. Later in the period Vancouver was called for too many men on the ice and Panarin made them pay with a rocket shot from the top of the zone to double the Rangers’ lead.

With two assists in the loss, Fox — fresh off of signing a seven-year extension with the Rangers at $9.5 million per year — reached 100 career points in his 135th game to become the 22nd defenseman in NHL history and third in franchise history (Brian Leetch and Sergei Zubov) to do so. Of those 22 defensemen, 16 are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

There were several aspects of the Tuesday’s game the team can build off. And leaving Vancouver with at least one point isn’t too bad, either.

“It’s tough to lose in OT like that,” Gallant said. “They made a great play. We had a great scoring chance before that. We battled here.”