Rangers Face Challenges Against Avalanche
DENVER — The Rangers’ recent game highlighted some issues within their batting lineup.
As they squared off against the NHL-leading Avalanche, the Rangers managed to stay competitive thanks to some timely scoring and impressive saves from goaltender Igor Shesterkin. However, it was clear that the gap between the two teams shown in Thursday night’s 6-3 loss was significant.
Interestingly, the Rangers actually took the lead two times against a Colorado team that had not suffered a regulation loss at home this season.
But when push came to shove, the Avalanche demonstrated they had the talent to pull away.
Currently, Colorado is on a seven-game winning streak and leads the league with 33 points.
Even though the Rangers did win the special teams battle, it ultimately didn’t make the difference they needed. Captain JT Miller took advantage of both power plays, while the Avalanche struggled to score, converting just one of their five opportunities.
But then again, skating short for nearly 10 minutes certainly didn’t help the Rangers’ cause.
Just 30 seconds after Miller netted his second power-play goal, tying the game at 3-3, Nathan MacKinnon backhanded a rebound into the net, restoring Colorado’s lead in the third period.
The Avalanche clearly had more standout players than the Rangers did.
The Rangers’ power play rebounded with a beautiful goal early on after previously going scoreless in Las Vegas. Mika Zibanejad intercepted a pass from Adam Fox to set up Miller, who made it look easy, putting the Rangers up 1-0 less than three minutes into the game.
The first period was relatively solid for the Blueshirts, especially considering the caliber of their opponent. However, things took a turn for the worse as Artemi Panarin turned the puck over in the defensive zone. This slip allowed MacKinnon to score, capitalizing on a pass from Martin Necas that deflected off Vladislav Gavrikov’s skate.
This goal pushed MacKinnon ahead of Peter Stastny on the franchise’s all-time points leaderboard.
Adam Edstrom, who was back in the lineup after being scratched in Las Vegas, scored his first goal of the season early in the second period, giving the Rangers a 2-1 advantage, although the team struggled to maintain it.
Despite limiting the Rangers to just four shots on goal, Colorado was able to keep Shesterkin busy with 14 attempts. You could sense that a goal was on the horizon, and it finally came at 17:15 when Cale Makar found the back of the net, leveling the score at 2-2.
