In New York, Alexis Lafreniere hit for the game-winner with 113 seconds gone in extra time on Monday to give the Rangers a 2-1 win over the visiting Colorado Avalanche.
Mika Zibanejad skated the puck down the right side, cut to the slot, and dropped a back pass to Lafreniere, who fired it home from the between the circles.
Jonathan Quick picked up the secondary assist on the winner.
“I shouldn’t wander out that far, but it felt like the right play when I started skating,” Quick said. “I thought I faked him; he didn’t bite and I realized I was in a little bit of trouble. Luckily, I bobbled it a little bit and got it into the neutral zone. The boys were able to take care of it from there.”
Quick made 31 saves in the win.
“I think it was a good way to jumpstart post break and get going,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “We ended with a win. To come back and put one together, now you got something going and you try build on it from there. If you start stringing some along, that can definitely build some confidence.”
The Rangers improved to 31-16-3 with their second straight win.
The game was one of the most complete efforts the Rangers have iced all season.
The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead at 18:12 of the opening stanza on a strike by Nathan MacKinnon.
MacKinnon’s speed baffled the Rangers for much of teh game.
“That’s on me,” Laviolette said. “We knew what was coming at us, and sometimes I feel like I can do a better job of explaining things. We were in place, we were in position, but after that happened we made a quick adjustment inside the room and were able to handle that speed a little bit more.”
For MacKinnon, it extended his point streak to 14 games.
Colorado dropped to 32-14-4.
“Even played hockey game, goes to overtime, I would have liked to have been able to grab the two points out of that, but I don’t think we did enough after getting lead to extend the lead or make it tougher on them,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought they actually got more jump as the game went on and we were a little bit tired.”
The game remained 1-0 to the Avs into the third period.
The Avs were scoreless in three power play chances in the early stages of the first period.
“Skating early, drawing penalties, a lot going on for us in the first period,” Bednar said. “It would have been nice to capitalize on one of those power play opportunities, but all in all, I think that was our best period.”
Artemi Panarin wristed a shot from the right circle to tie the game, 1-1, at 11:17 of the third to force the extra session.
Panarin had seemingly taken the game on his shoulders on the play leading up to the goal.
Panarin had the puck behind the Avs cage, skated on the left boards up the point and then cut left before taking the shot form the right circle.
Alexandar Georgiev made 27 saves in the loss.
“We had a nice push at the end of the second after they had us hemmed in our zone for a while,” Bednar said. “We pushed back, come in with the lead, and in the third they continued to push and it looks like we didn’t do enough to secure the win.”