Rangers manage a point, lose in shootout to Colorado

Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images

The New York Rangers managed to grab a point against the Colorado Avalanche, but were downed in the shootout by a score of 4-3. New York didn’t come out particularly strong in the game, getting dominated by the Avs and trailing after the period. But then the Rangers found the same gear they had in the Pittsburgh game, and came roaring back to take a 3-2 lead into the third period. A Jesper Fast penalty put the kibosh on that pretty quickly though.

Henrik Lundqvist didn’t face a ton of shots, but had to make some good saves throughout the game against a very talented lineup. The Rangers, who had ten players finish with a point in the 5-0 rout of Pittsburgh on Thursday, had eight players finish with a point in this contest. They didn’t have a strong first period, but rebounded nicely for the final 40 minutes of regulation. Worth noting: Dan Boyle looked very, very good in this game. Wait until he has two fully functional hands and a few games to shake off the rust.

On to the goals:

Avs 1, Rangers 0

The Rangers on this shift were tired after icing the puck. Dominic Moore actually won the faceoff, a rarity in this game, but then John Moore couldn’t clear the zone, turning it over to Tyson Barrie. The puck eventually went from Ryan O’Reilly back to Barrie at the point for a shot. Matt Duchene got position on John Moore at the goal line and roofed the rebound over Hank.

Rangers 1, Avs 1

Hayes drew a slashing call on Nathan MacKinnon, but the Rangers were able to maintain possession for an extended 6-on-5. Eventually, Matt Hunwick tried to hit Hayes cutting to the back door, and the puck went off Dom Moore’s skate, off Semyon Varlamov’s pad, and to Hayes for the rebound goal.

Avs 2, Rangers 1

This was a whole lotta fail. First, Marc Staal got absolutely burned by Duchene. This forced Dan Girardi to snow angel (ok, forced is not the right word here, but you know what I mean) to break up the initial pass to Alex Tanguay in front. For some reason both Staal and Girardi wound up behind the net. Martin St. Louis came down to the goal mouth, but as he approached Tanguay he curled away like there was a force field around him. Erik Johnson put the puck right on Tanguay’s stick for the easy goal.

Rangers 2, Avs 2

You can see this one coming. Derek Stepan and Rick Nash forced Johnson into a turnover and then broke for a two-on-one. Stepan faked the pass and ripped it over Varlamov.

Rangers 3, Avs 2

After two wishy-washy calls left the Rangers with a 13 second powerplay, the good guys were able to sustain pressure after the truncated man advantage. Eventually John Moore got the puck to Mats Zuccarello down low while Girardi got position on his man (Zach Redmond) in front. Zucc put the puck right on Girardi’s stick for the tap-in past Varlamov.

Avs 3, Rangers 3

The Avs get the tying goal on a powerplay created when Jesper Fast pulled a Benoit Pouliot with an offensive zone penalty late in the game. Redmond got the puck from the point to MacKinnon at the top of the circle. At that point, Girardi is supposed to rotate up to Mac while Staal covers the slot man (Duchene). Staal was slow to the punch, and MacKinnon got the puck through Hank. It looked like Duchene tipped it, but MacKinnon got the goal.

Shift Chart (courtesy of war-on-ice):

With the last change, coach Alain Vigneault decided to match Staal/Boyle with the MacKinnon line and Girardi/Moore with the Duchene/ROR line. I find that matchup to be interesting, since it’s clear AV is going to lean on Girardi to be his shutdown guy no matter who he has as a partner.

Fenwick Chart (courtesy of war-on-ice):

It looks like the Avs played for the shootout once they tied the game. They just let the Rangers completely dominate them at even strength for the rest of the game (the flat lines at the end are because the chart is 5v5 only, and OT is 4v4).

The Rangers got a point in the game, but after a dominating performance against Pittsburgh, this game left us wanting more. The Penguins are up again on Saturday, so let’s hope the Rangers find that 60 minute compete level like they did on Tuesday. Last night’s game was only a 45 minute effort. Of course, we’d have a completely different feeling if the Rangers won the shootout. I really hate that games end like that.