Rangers fail to keep up with Avalanche stars in 6-3 road loss: takeaways
There simply was too much Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar magic for the New York Rangers to overcome Thursday, when they lost to the League-leading Colorado Avalanche 6-3 at Ball Arena.
MacKinnon, who leads the NHL in scoring with 36 points in 20 games, scored two goals including the eventual game-winner 30 seconds after J.T. Miller potted his second goal to tie the game 3-3 midway through the third period. MacKinnon added an assist, while Makar also had two goals and a helper, to go along with a pair of shots that hit the post.
The Rangers (10-10-2) lost their third straight game. Igor Shesterkin held them in this one, finishing with 29 saves, before the Avalanche pulled away with two empty-net goals. New York was badly out-chanced 5v5 (35-11), where they had a miserable 23.04 percent expected goal share, per Natural Stat Trick.
Adam Edstrom scored his first goal of the season, and both Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad had two assists for the Rangers, who are 0-2-0 on this three-game road trip which concludes Saturday in Utah against the Mammoth.
Brock Nelson and Ross Colton also scored for the Avalanche, who won their seventh straight game and are 14-1-5 on the season. Martin Necas contributed three assists, and goalie Scott Wedgewood finished with 15 saves.
Despite being largely outplayed, and considerably outshot (24-10) and out-attempted (60-21) over the first two periods, the Rangers entered the final 20 minutes even where it mattered most, on the scoreboard. In fact, the Rangers didn’t trail for a single second of the opening two periods, twice taking one-goal leads, before the Avalanche tied things up each time.
Miller opened the scoring on a Rangers power play 2:26 into the first period with an easy tap in after a tic-tac-toe passing sequence involving Fox and Zibanejad. It was the captain’s first power-play goal of the season, and, as it turned out, his first of the night.
With a sharp Shesterkin on top of his game, it looked like the visitors would carry a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. That is until an Artemi Panarin defensive zone turnover ended up in the back of their net with just 26.2 seconds left on the clock.
Mackinnon buried a rebound on Shesterkin’s doorstep to tie things up. But it didn’t take long for the Rangers to move back on top.
Edstrom used his long reach to redirect a centering pass from Sam Carrick off the rush up and over Wedgewood to make it 2-1 Rangers at 3:58 of the second period. The scoring play started when Braden Schneider made a perfect bank pass from his own end off the boards at center ice to spring the forwards on a partial 2-on-1 rush.
It was all Colorado the rest of the period. The Avalanche dazzled with an eye-popping combination of speed and skill, with their 14-4 shots advantage not fully doing justice to how much they dominated play.
They nearly tied it at 5:16, when Makar got behind the Rangers defense following a pass from Devon Toews, and beat Shesterkin glove side with a gorgeous forehand shot, only to hit the near post.
He wasn’t denied at 17:15, though. Makar tied the game with a wraparound goal, his seventh of the season, following a Rangers turnover in their own end, and a pretty passing sequence involving MacKinnon and Necas.
Nelson provided Colorado its first lead of the game 2:36 into the third period, rifling a power-play shot over Shesterkin’s glove off a 3-on-2 rush for his sixth goal of the season and third in as many games.
Miller pulled the Rangers even with his second power-play goal of the night at 10:18, when he deflected Fox’s long shot past Wedgewood. It was sweet payback for Miller, who was robbed by Wedgewood five minutes earlier off a 2-on-1 short-handed rush.
The tie lasted all of 30 seconds. Makar rang a long shot off the post and MacKinnon beat Schneider to the rebound for his League-leading 16th goal at 10:38.
Makar then zipped a shot from his own end into the empty Rangers net at 18:35 before Shesterkin could even reach the bench for a sixth attacker. Colton added another empty-netter at 19:47 to close out the scoring.
Key takeaways after Rangers lose 6-3 to Avalanche
Pretty special
The Rangers were at their best Thursday when on the power play and penalty kill. Their specilty teams were, well, pretty special.
The power play was a perfect 2-for-2, and it was doubly nice to see Miller go the net to score his first two power-play goals in 2025-26. It was only the second time the Rangers scored twice on the man advantage in 22 games this season. Fox moved the puck crisply as the quarterback, and Vincent Trocheck won numerous face-offs to key the PP success. Overall, Trocheck won 74 percent of his draws (17 of 23).
The Rangers also were 5-for-6 on the penalty kill, with Mike Sullivan praising their “better structure” against such a dynamic and fast Colorado power play. Shesterkin was their best penalty killer, but the Rangers did a good job with their sticks to break up passes and block shots when down a man, as well.
New York had a pair of excellent short-handed scoring chances, but Miller was stoned by Wedgewood on one 2-on-1 rush in the second period, and Carrick couldn’t convert on another odd-man rush in the third. And after Carrick was stopped, Colorado scored a power-play goal on the counter-attack the other way.
Rangers fail to keep up 5-on-5
As noted earlier, the Rangers were shredded by the Avalanche 5v5, even though they were only outscored 3-1 in those situations. New York had all kinds of trouble getting through the neutral zone, and coughed up the puck often against the faster Avalanche, who were “on top of” the Rangers throughout — per Sullivan.
Panarin, Trocheck and Zibanejad combined for one shot on goal. Alexis Lafreniere and Will Cuylle had one each. You already know how Colorado’s best players fared.
The crusher was the Avalanche scoring on the very next shift after Miller tied things up in the third period. Colorado had a clean zone entry, Makar whizzed a shot past a screened Shesterkin, and Schneider was beaten to the loose puck by MacKinnon. That was tough at any strength, but, yes, it was 5v5.
Mile High Sam
For some reason, Carrick, a grinding fourth-line center, produces plenty of offense against the high-flying Avalanche. He assisted on Edstrom’s 5v5 goal with a perfect pass and has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past eight games against Colorado. He came mighty close to scoring a goal, as well, with that short-handed opportunity.
Come to think of it, Edstrom is beginning to build some success against the Avs, too. Of his eight NHL goals over three seasons, two were scored against the Avalanche in just three games. His goal Thursday was Edstrom’s first since Jan. 23, a span of 22 games, since he was injured and missed most of the second half last season.
Avalanche own third periods
The Avalanche scored four times in the third period against the Rangers — including two empty-netters — and are outscoring opponents 32-9 in third periods this season. Simply, the best team in the NHL knows how to put opponents away and close games out.
Colorado is 14-0-1 when leading or tied after two periods this season
