DENVER — This is just another feather in the Rangers’ cap in a season full of feathers.
The Rangers defeated the mighty Avalanche team in a 3-2 shootout Thursday night at Ball Arena, putting an exclamation point on a 10-day series packed with powerhouses.
This is the first time since the 2016-17 season that the Blueshirts have swept Colorado State in the regular season, a feat made even more impressive when you analyze the Avs’ dominance over other teams in the NHL over the past few seasons. It will become a target.
“We’re pretty confident in our game right now,” said Vincent Trocheck, who scored with Artemi Panarin in the skills competition to extend the Rangers’ winning streak to four.
“We feel like we’re getting better. We feel like our game has been pretty complete since we got past the deadline. Hopefully we can continue to improve even more before the playoffs.”
The Avalanche came into the game with just one loss off a season-high nine-game winning streak, and they put up a fight to match.
Nathan MacKinnon had scored points in all 35 of the Avs’ previous home games coming into this contest, making it the second longest stretch in NHL history.
The threatening power forward looked ready to extend that to 36.
But the Rangers met each challenge with the same vigor that Colorado plays with game after game.
“I think it’s good from the perspective of having a great year that we’re playing a team that’s top-ranked in their division and top-ranked in their conference,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “Colorado is certainly one of those teams. … The players played hard. They started the game the right way. I thought they played hard. They played hard to get that lead. We fought in the third period.”
The game quickly became a goaltending showdown between two goaltenders who had previously shared the same goal.
This was the fourth time that Abs’ Alexander Georgiev has played against his former team, which moved his negotiating rights to Colorado on the first day of the 2022 NHL Draft.
The Bulgarian-born netminder has always played with a little extra effort against the Rangers, and Thursday night was no exception.
Georgiev, who entered the game with a 1-0-2 record with a 1.56 points average and .952 save percentage against the Rangers, had yet to play in regulation against the club that gave him his first NHL chance. Never before.
The Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin and Georgiev made saves for the first 39 minutes and 27 seconds of the game before Avalanche forward Casey Mittelstadt scored the first goal with just seconds left in the center field.
At Colorado’s level from puck drop, it was only a matter of time.
The Rangers created some isolated, quality scoring chances, including a stretch pass from Shesterkin to Artemi Panarin before the Russian star wing was denied by Georgiev, but the Avalanche consistently struggled as a team. Attacked the game.
Shesterkin served as a wall in overtime, making five big stops and making 38 saves on the night.
The Rangers fought back early in the third period and began to consistently generate quality time in the offensive zone.
Kaapo Kakko then scored on Georgiev’s goal from behind the goal line, tying the score at one-all with 17:01 left in regulation time.
Chris Kreider gave the Rangers their first lead of the night with a power play goal, but it lasted just over three minutes.
Colorado kept chasing until Devon Toews cut through traffic and hit a long shot on net, but Ryan Lindgren, skating in his first game back from injury, froze the puck under Shesterkin. He tried to let the ball slip, but he pushed it in instead, tying the game again in the 12th inning. :47 mark of last frame.
“We can look at each other and see what we can do [take] In the playoffs,” Shesterkin said. “It’s really good to play against a great team, especially before the playoffs.”
