Avalanche slow start proves costly in shootout loss to Rangers

The extreme temperature drops over the weekend seemed to follow the Colorado Avalanche as their offense was left back in Denver during the first game of a four-game road trip back east against the New York Rangers on Tuesday night. The glacial start put the Avalanche behind the eight ball for most of the game and caused them to be playing catch-up for long stretches of what was ultimately a 3-2 shootout loss in Madison Square Garden.

New York jumped all over Colorado in the first period and poured on the shots on goal, finishing the first period with a one-goal lead thanks to a Chris Kreider deflection on the power play. They carried a 19-7 shot advantage into the first intermission and it was the third consecutive period the Avalanche had been straight up buried by their opponent going back to Saturday night’s come-from-ahead overtime loss to the Calgary Flames.

Colorado found their form in the second period and a Rangers penalty opened the door for them to tie the game in the same way they had taken the lead – a tip in front of the net with the man advantage. Upon further review, Colorado’s opening goal was actually deflected twice, first by Tyson Jost as he got a stick on Tyson Barrie’s shot from the point but then a second time when Gabriel Landeskog deflected Jost’s deflection. Follow all that?

The Avalanche didn’t have the lead for long as Kevin Hayes blasted a one-timer while skating backwards past Semyon Varlamov. It was a shot basically no goaltender on the planet would have stopped as its placement was picture perfect.

The Rangers’ lead wouldn’t even make it through the second period as the Avalanche managed to tie it up with just 13 seconds left in the middle frame with…another double-deflection goal. This time Nathan MacKinnon redirected a Landeskog tip of a Mikko Rantanen shot from the blue line. The goal came just moments after Rangers future Hall of Fame goaltender Henrik Lundqvist had absolutely robbed Matt Nieto of the tying goal.

The third period was a tightly contested affair and that saw just 18 combined shots on goal between the two teams (Colorado led 10-8) after a 27-shot second period (Colorado led that one 15-12). Neither team was able to break the time so the game wound up heading into overtime, the second straight game the Avalanche found themselves in the clutches of the three-on-three format they struggled so mightily with last season.

Overtime was a bit of a wild affair as the Rangers were gifted a power play just moments in when Nathan MacKinnon was called for Holding but they were unable to capitalize on the advantage and failed to really generate much in the way of quality scoring chances. No, that happened after MacKinnon left the box and Jimmy Vesey was left alone in front of the net to tap home a perfect cross-ice feed but Vesey fanned badly on the attempt and Varlamov was able to cover the puck and keep the game tied.

In the final minute of play of the extra session, the Avalanche had a golden opportunity to win and bank the second point when Alexander Kerfoot hit Landeskog for a one-timer right in front of Lundqvist. The puck got behind Lundqvist but banged off the post and play continued. It continued right into a MacKinnon rush up the ice where he also beat Lundqvist but found iron, Colorado’s third post of the night. The close calls proved costly as the game worked its way into a shootout.

The shootout went New York’s way as Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Shattenkirk scored for the Rangers and only Rantanen was able to find the net for Colorado. The Avalanche dropped to 3-1-2 on the season and have three games remaining on this road trip.

Their next game comes Thursday night against a New Jersey Devils team off to a great start of their own.