Rangers beat Avalanche in shootout, stop Nathan MacKinnon's home point streak at 35 games
Rangers center Vincent Trocheck, left, scores against Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev in the shootout of an NHL game Thursday in Denver. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
DENVER — After facing all those top-end teams over the last few weeks, the Rangers had one last major test before the regular season closes: the run-and-gun Colorado Avalanche.
And they aced it.
Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck scored against former Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev in the shootout and Igor Shesterkin stopped both shots he faced in the tiebreaker to give the Rangers a 3-2 win at Ball Arena and a sweep of the two-game season series.
Shesterkin, who made 38 saves in regulation and overtime, was especially good in OT, making five saves to get the Rangers (49-20-4, 102 points) to the shootout.
“They were taking it to us, but thankfully we have the best goalie in the league to help us with that,’’ defenseman Braden Schneider said.
“He’s outstanding,’’ Trocheck said. “He’s outstanding every night. In overtime tonight he made a few huge stops. And then the shootout, against . . . some really high-power, talented forwards, to make those stops, it goes a long way. And you’re able to put some in.’’
Panarin scored and Mika Zibanejad failed on his attempt in the first two rounds of the shootout, and Shesterkin stopped Casey Mittelstadt and Mikko Rantanen. Trocheck scored on the Rangers’ third attempt to win it.
The Rangers have gone 9-3-1 in March, all while playing against some of the top teams in the league. They split two games with Florida, beat Boston and Carolina, lost in a shootout to Toronto and lost in regulation to Winnipeg and Tampa Bay before beating the Avalanche (46-21-6, 98 points).
“I think we’re pretty confident with our game right now,’’ Trocheck said. “I feel like we’re only getting better. Since the [trade] deadline, I feel like we’ve rounded out our game a lot. So hopefully we can continue to get better before the playoffs.’’
It was Colorado’s second straight loss (0-1-1) after a nine-game winning streak.
Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon, who is in a battle with Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid for the league scoring lead, had his point streak end at 19 games.
MacKinnon had at least one point in Colorado’s first 35 home games, which is second in NHL history to Wayne Gretzky’s 40-game streak in 1988-89.
“It’s not easy,’’ coach Peter Laviolette said of keeping MacKinnon off the scoresheet. “I mean, he comes out here with so much speed, and so much talent behind the speed. The talent’s one thing, but then when he puts the speed behind it, it makes it even more challenging.’’
It appeared for a moment that MacKinnon would get an assist on the goal that tied the score at 12:47 of the third period. He passed to Devon Toews, who took a shot that Shesterkin saved. It appeared that Rantanen had knocked in the rebound, but the replay showed that it was actually Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren — returning to the lineup after missing four games with a knee injury — who had inadvertently knocked the rebound in.
The Rangers trailed 1-0 entering the third on Mittelstadt’s goal with 32.1 seconds left in the second period. But Kaapo Kakko’s goal, from behind the net, tied it at 2:59 of the third period and Chris Kreider’s first goal in six games, on the power play at 9:35, gave them a 2-1 lead.
The Rangers had a chance to double their lead after Avalanche coach Jared Bednar challenged Kreider’s goal, alleging that there was a hand pass from Trocheck that got the puck over to Kreider. The challenge was unsuccessful and Colorado was given a delay-of-game penalty, putting the Rangers back on the power play. But they failed to score with the advantage.
Notes & quotes: Center Alex Wennberg, who missed Tuesday’s game for what the Rangers called “personal reasons’’ was on the trip and back in the lineup. Wennberg and his wife announced the birth of their daughter, Ivy, on Instagram on Wednesday . . . With Wennberg back, rookie Matt Rempe was the odd man out in Laviolette’s forward rotation and was a scratch, along with D Brandon Scanlin, who made his NHL debut in Tuesday’s win over Philadelphia. Scanlin came out of the lineup as Lindgren returned.
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.
