Rangers beat Avalanche in shootout for third straight win

DENVER — Rangers came to the Ball Arena on Friday night to win.

Against a battered Avalanche team, the Blueshirts took the lead and earned two points with a 2-1 shootout win after Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin scored on their former teammate and current Avalanche goaltender. Alexander Georgiev. In front of a maroon-clad crowd that had several patches of blue dotted throughout, the Rangers snapped a four-game losing streak against the Avalanche.

If the Rangers were going to beat the defending Stanley Cup champions, the circumstances entering Friday night were as good as ever. The Avalanche were without seven regulars, including Nathan MacKinnon, captain Gabriel Landeskog, Evan Rodrigues, Bowen Byram and Artturi Lehkonen. Rangers, meanwhile, were looking to claim their third straight win – something that had only happened once this season until this current streak.

Rangers have failed to start once this season. So many victories have been followed by heartbreaking losses. It’s one of the stark differences between this season and last, when Rangers won three to four at a time on multiple occasions.

But three straight wins, including two against teams considered to be in the NHL’s top tier, is certainly one way to set things in motion.

Goaltender Igor Shesterkin got revenge for the first time the Rangers faced the Avalanche, who also went to a shootout, but ended in a loss. Shesterkin stopped 41 of 42 shots he faced in the win, including denying JT Compher and Mikko Rantanen in the shootout.

Despite missing so many of their best players, the Avalanche didn’t miss a beat against the Rangers. Their ability to shoot quickly and use their transition game to their advantage was still there. On a game win, Rantanen’s one-timer shot opened the game in the first period.

Rangers skated with them in the middle frame, however, while managing to tie the game after outscoring Colorado 15-13. In the run, Artemi Panarin returned the puck to a trailing Braden Schneider, who blasted it through Georgiev less than five minutes into the second.

Schneider’s four goals since Nov. 22 are the most scored among NHL defensemen in that span.

There were only two penalties called the entire game and the first was against Chris Kreider for holding off former Ranger Dryden Hunt at 2:20 of the third period. The refs hadn’t called anything up to that point, including an obvious trip by Cale Makar on Barclay Goodrow, who jumped on a breakaway and had his skates removed from under him.

The second was a clear make-up call on Rantanen, who was sent to the penalty box later in the period for barely tripping Zibanejad.