NEW YORK –Kevin Shattenkirk scored the deciding goal in a shootout to lift the New York Rangers over the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Mats Zuccarello scored for the Rangers in the first round of the tiebreaker, and Mikko Rantanen tied it in the second. Shattenkirk then beat Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov in the third round, and Henrik Lundqvist denied Gabriel Landeskog to secure New York’s second win in six games this season (2-4-0).
Kevin Hayes and Chris Kreider scored in regulation for the Rangers, and Lundqvist stopped 31 shots through overtime. Zuccarello and Shattenkirk each had two assists.
Nathan MacKinnon, who also had an assist, scored for Colorado to set the franchise record with a goal in each of the first six games to open a season. Tyson Jost also had a goal for the Avalanche. Varlamov, who came in 3-0-1 with a 1.75 goals-against average, made 41 saves.
MacKinnon was whistled for holding Brady Skjei on a Rangers rush 20 seconds into overtime, putting the Rangers on a 4-on-3 power play. Varlamov gloved a shot by Mika Zibanejad from the left circle about halfway through the advantage and then smothered a hard shot by Jesper Fast in the waning seconds.
Landeskog and MacKinnon each hit a post in the final minute of the extra period.
Trailing 1-0 after being outshot 19-7 by the Rangers in the first period, the Avalanche picked up their intensity in the second.
Colorado tied the score on a power play at 8:13 of the middle period. With Hayes off for tripping, Jost tipped a shot by Tyson Barrie from center point past Lundqvist for his second of the season.
Hayes then regained the lead for the Rangers just 2:40 later as he took a pass from Zuccarello in the right circle and beat Varlamov for his first.
Lundqvist made a pair of stellar saves with about 30 seconds left in the second, first on a tip by Matt Calvert and then a sprawling pad save of Matt Nieto’s follow on the rebound.
However, the Avalanche tied it 2-all with 12.6 seconds left as MacKinnon tipped Rantanen’s shot from between the circles that first deflected off Landeskog for MacKinnon’s seventh. That broke Mats Sundin’s franchise record set for Quebec in 1992-93. It also extended Rantanen’s streak to at least one assist in Colorado’s first six games.
Rangers coach David Quinn has been urging his players to shoot more, and they followed his directions from the start.
MacKinnon had a wrist shot stopped by Lundqvist 1:02 in for the game’s first shot on goal. The Rangers had the next eight shots until Nieto’s attempt in close was denied by Lundqvist 5:04 later.
With Colorado’s Patrik Nemeth off for hooking Vinni Lettieri, Kreider got New York on the scoreboard as he deflected a shot by Shattenkirk past Varlamov for his third with 7:53 left. The Rangers had a 14-3 advantage on shots at that point.
The goal was New York’s second on the power play in 13 chances this season. It was also the second allowed by Colorado, which was 22 for 23 on the penalty-kill in its first five games.
Colorado Will play Thursday at New Jersey.
