NEW YORK – The point streak had to come to an end eventually.
But losing Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden still felt like a missed opportunity in the Rangers’ race back up the standings.
Rested and playing at home for the third straight game, the Rangers stormed back twice against a Colorado Avalanche team that was beaten in Boston less than 24 hours earlier. But despite controlling the play over the last two periods, the Rangers came up empty-handed in a 5-4 loss to the Avs.
Artturi Lehkonen put the game away with 14.7 seconds left, striking on a 3-on-1 right after a Rangers’ powerplay had expired.
“Everybody is frustrated,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “Disappointed. The guys kept fighting the entire day to get back into that game and finally caught it and caught a powerplay at the end to try and win it. So that’s a tough loss.”
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The tough part for New York was how well it played at times, outshooting Colorado 27-9 over the last two periods. The Rangers also had momentum and the crowd on their side after Artemi Panarin tied it up at 4 with under five minutes to go.
It still wasn’t enough for the Rangers, who came in as winners of six of the last eight games. Before Sunday, New York had notched at least a point in a season-high 10 straight.
“I’m actually not thinking right now about the last 10 games,” Panarin said. “Just kind of a sad feeling anyway even if you lost once in a season. After the loss you feel disappointed a little bit.”
With the loss, the Rangers (24-21-4) stayed three points back of the second Wild Card spot with a game in hand on Columbus.
Avs strike early
As usual, Cale Makar was at the center of everything for the Avalanche on Sunday. The former Norris Trophy winner scored twice off Igor Shesterkin, had another goal disallowed and set up the game-winner. But late in the third period, the Rangers had a chance to take the lead when Makar was called for holding the stick with 2:24 left.
The Rangers generated three shots on goal on the ensuing powerplay, but nothing came of it.
And when Makar came out of the box, he stole a pass from behind and led the race up the ice.
“A couple errors ended up in the back of our net and made us play catch-up,” forward Reilly Smith said. “But I think we moved as a group of five, forechecked well and created a lot of opportunities. On a different night, we win that game.”
Instant offense
It didn’t take long for the Avs to get some production from the players they acquired in a blockbuster three-team deal that sent star winger Mikko Rantanen to Carolina on Friday. One of their newcomers is New York native Jack Drury, whose second game in Avalanche blue came against his uncle’s team.
Drury opened the scoring on a deflection less than six minutes in and Makar made it 2-0 Colorado only 43 seconds later.
The answer came from Rangers’ fourth line, which has provided quite a spark of late. The Blueshirts got on the board in the first period when Sam Carrick buried a rebound after Matt Rempe shuffled a backhand, wraparound on net.
With the goal, their line with Adam Edstrom has now scored in three straight games.
“They’ve been playing great,” defenseman Adam Fox said. “They get in and keep it simple. They tire teams out and wear them down and contribute in the goal column. Big goal in the game.”
Vincent Trocheck added a goal for New York and Will Borgen cued in a rebound for his second goal as a Ranger. The goal for Borgen came one day after the Rangers announced a five-year extension with the 28-year-old defenseman.
“Well, I think it’s a really good signing for us,” Laviolette said. “He’s come in here and played really good defense. Physical. Moves really well. He’s having some offense as well. I think just really helped solidified what we have here already.”
The Rangers will finish up a four-game homestand on Tuesday against Carolina.