New York Rangers Win Wild One Over Colorado Avalanche
3. 103. 6. 95. Final
FIRST PERIOD: The New York Rangers were consistently dynamic from puck drop, keeping heavy pressure in the Colorado Avalanche zone for the bulk of the first. 4-on-4 play took place at 5:31 after Colorado’s Ryan O’Reilly was called for tripping and New York’s Kevin Hayes was caught covering the puck, trying to make a play with his glove in front of the ref (a definite no no). Close to the halfway point, the Avs finally took their first shot on goal, yet Cam Talbot flashed the leather robbing Matt Duchene on a huge chance. Colorado then went on the power play at 9:10 after Marc Staal was sent to the penalty box for tripping. The Rangers absolutely murdered the penalty by repeatedly clearing the puck. Then the first goal of the game went to wise man Dan Boyle (8) at 16:30, assisted by Hayes (14) and Ryan McDonagh (15). The Rangers kept the one goal lead and surpassed the Avs in shots by a margin of 13-5 this period.
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SECOND PERIOD: The Blueshirts kept their focus as Chris Kreider got a good look on a deflection, but the puck flew right into Semyon Varlamov‘s glove. Hayes (9) then scored a beauty at just 1:47, his unassisted goal bringing the Rangers up 2-0. Talbot then incredibly stopped Jarome Iginla on a breakaway. In the last half of the period, Colorado retaliated with sustained pressure and eventually hit twine on a deflection by Gabriel Landeskog (11). Assists were collected by John Mitchell (11) and Nathan MacKinnon (21). The play went under review as it was unclear whether the puck went in off the tape or the shoulder, but the goal stood and the scoreboard read 2-1. J.T. Miller was called for holding at 13:22 then Dan Girardi put the Rangers in a difficult spot by taking a tripping penalty at 13:30. Colorado failed to convert however in spite of the two man advantage. At even strength, Mats Zuccarello (11) fired one past Varlamov for the Rangers’ 3-1 lead, assists credited to Nash (20) and Derick Brassard (29). Avs’ Zach Redmond was then penalized for hooking at 18:41, a New York power play spilling over into the third. The Rangers still held the edge in SOG, 10-8 this time.
THIRD PERIOD: All the momentum then shifted in favor of the Avs. Talbot bailed out his team time after time as Colorado closed the gap in total shots on goal. Martin St. Louis lost the puck to Maxime Talbot (9) and Iginla (17) buried his own rebound at 6:43, bringing the score to 3-2 but accidentally kicking Talbot in the mask. It looked scary but the Goalbuster was a trooper. Tanner Glass was then given a penalty for an illegal check to the head on O’Reilly, but New York was successful in the PK more or less. Colorado’s Jan Hejda (1) then tied up the game with his first goal of the season (great timing there bud), assisted by Iginla (20) and Duchene (20) at 10:44. But at 12:02, Carl Hagelin (12) stole the lead back for New York, Hayes (15) and Kevin Klein (13) helping. Next, Nash (34) inevitably found the scoresheet at 15:42, with an assist from Miller (6). Colorado’s Alex Tanguay then went to the box for tripping at 17:40 and McDonagh (5) fired at an empty net to score a power play goal at 18:59. The Rangers won the game 6-3 despite being outshot 15-8 in the last period and down in face-off wins, 36-28.
STARS OF THE GAME:
1 – Kevin Hayes
2 – Rick Nash
3 – Jarome Iginla