Rangers better, but Avalanche still get best of them
Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant looks on during a game against the Islanders at UBS Arena on Nov. 24, 2021. Credit: Jim McIsaac
DENVER – After getting outclassed by the Colorado Avalanche in Madison Square Garden last week, the Rangers came to Ball Arena Tuesday night hoping to be a much better version of themselves than they were in that game.
And they were. Unfortunately for them, they still weren’t good enough to beat an Avalanche team that is one of the legitimate contenders to win the Stanley Cup. First-period goals by Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar, on the power play, put the Rangers in a hole they were never able to climb out of, and ultimately, they lost their second straight game, and third in the last four, 4-2 to the Avalanche.
Afterward, the Rangers tried to put a positive spin on the loss, saying they were happy with their effort against an elite team like the Avs.
"I thought we played great,’’ forward Ryan Strome said. "I thought we played for 60 minutes. I think we competed. There was times in that game where we probably could have folded it in, and I thought the (penalty kill, which went 5-for-6) did a good job of keeping us in the game at times. And we fought back and I thought we had a good effort.
"Not the result we want, but there's a lot of nights where we've had a win, and we're not happy with the effort. But I think tonIght was a pretty good effort.’’
The Rangers (18-7-3), down 3-1 entering the third period, were kept in the game by the solid goaltending of Alexandar Georgiev, who started for the fifth time in the last six games since No. 1 goalie Igor Shesterkin has been on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. Georgiev made 27 saves – including 10 in the third period and nine on Colorado’s six power plays – to keep the Rangers in the game.
"He played great,’’ defenseman Adam Fox said of Georgiev (5-3-1). "They're a really good team, obviously a lot of skill. And he made some big saves for us.’’
Rangers coach Gerard Gallant pulled Georgiev for the extra skater with more than three minutes remaining, and Julien Gauthier banged in a rebound with 2:02 remaining to pull the Rangers within 3-2.
But Valeri Nichushkin scored on a breakaway with 36.5 seconds left – his second goal of the game – to seal it.
Gallant, who was none too happy following the Rangers’ loss Sunday to Nashville, seemed almost upbeat after this one.
"I thought we played a good, hard game,’’ he said. "We played against a real good hockey team that played really fast, so I liked our effort. We made a couple mistakes, but overall, we played a good game.’’
The Rangers were playing their first game in Colorado since March 11, 2020, when they lost in overtime, 3-2, in what ended up being their final regular-season game of 2019-20, as the NHL shut down the next day because of COVID-19. In that game, Pavel Buchnevich scored with 13 seconds remaining in regulation to force the overtime and earn the Rangers a precious point that pulled them to within two points of a playoff spot.
Fox and Strome, who both played in that game, were asked if they had memories of it when they stepped on the ice on Tuesday.
"We almost tied it up,’’ Strome said.
Tuesday, Strome’s sixth goal of the season, a deflection of a shot/pass by Fox, pulled the Rangers within 2-1 at 10:36 of the second period. But Nichushkin’s first goal, at 18:45 of the period, put Colorado back up, 3-1.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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