Rangers blow late lead, fall in shootout to Avs

I thought this was a cool picture (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

The Rangers gave up a one-goal lead with less than a minute remaining in regulation before losing in the shootout by a score of 3-2. Colorado coach Patrick Roy pulled goaltender Semyon Varlamov with two minutes left,  and the gamble paid off as the Avs. The Rangers played a very strong game for the first 43 minutes of the game, but they also played a bit of a prevent defense in the third period, registering just three shot attempts in the final 17 minutes of the third period.

Henrik Lundqvist stopped 35 Colorado shots, including 15 in the third period as the Avs tried to tie the game. He couldn’t stop them all, and got zero offensive support once the Avs tilted the ice in their favor in the third period. But hey, they got a point, and that’s all that matters.

On to the goals:

Rangers 1, Avs 0

Mats Zuccarello drew two Avalanche defensemen to him, and the attention of a third sitting in the slot (the fourth is circling with Derick Brassard). Although the Avs usually play man on man (hence the one defender following Brassard), this appeared to be more of an overload setup. An overload leaves the weakside defenseman –John Moore in this case– open. Zucc hit him with a pass, and Moore waited for Brassard to circle to the front for a screen before he blasted a shot through Varlamov for the goal.

Avs 1, Rangers 1

Martin St. Louis tried to hit Brad Richards cutting to the slot in the offensive zone. Varlamov was able to poke the puck away, right to Ryan O’Reilly. At this moment, Dan Girardi was in no-man’s land, below the top of the circle with John Mitchell curling behind him for a rush. ROR chipped the puck past Girardi, springing Mitchell for a rush against John Moore. Mitchell waited for Andre Benoit to join the rush, and hit him with a pass that Moore could not block. Benoit came in and beat Hank over his glove with a backhand.

Rangers 2, Avs 1

Best angle I could get.

After a battle along the boards in the defensive zone, Derek Stepan came away with the puck and beat a lazy stick check from Max Talbot out of the zone. Behind the play, Carl Hagelin actually tripped up Nick Holden behind the play, a call the refs missed. The lazy stick check from Talbot and the tripped up Holden led to a 2-on-1 for Stepan and Rick Nash. Step initially looked to pass, but just roofed it over Varlamov’s glove instead.

Avs 2, Rangers 2

Brassard won a key defensive zone face off with less than a minute remaining. The puck went to Girardi, who bounced the puck off the glass, but Erik Johnson stopped it to keep the zone. His shot on net was stopped by Marc Staal, but his clear was stopped by Tyson Barrie in the high slot. Barrie whiffed on his initial shot, but reached back and got a second shot on net through a screen that beat Hanks.

Fenwick Chart:

Courtesy of ExtraSkater

Oof. That third period was a rough one.

Win Expectancy Chart:

Courtesy of ExtraSkater

For those watching the scoreboard, the Blue Jackets beat the Flyers last night, meaning the Rangers now have a four point lead on the Flyers (Philly with two games in hand) for second place in the Metro Division. More importantly, the point drops the Rangers magic number to clinch a playoff spot down to two.