Nathan MacKinnon scored 2:46 into overtime to give the Colorado Avalanche a 3\u20132 win over the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
But it definitely didn\u2019t come without a head-scratcher.<\/p>\n
The Rangers forced overtime with 42 seconds left when Artemi Panarin blasted a one-timer from Mika Zibanejad past Mackenzie Blackwood. Colorado head coach Jared Bednar immediately challenged, arguing Panarin had played the puck with a high stick earlier in the play. Per the rulebook, he did.<\/p>\n
By rule, it\u2019s considered high-sticking if the puck is contacted above shoulder height during play, or above the level of the crossbar on a scoring attempt. On the replay, Panarin\u2019s stick looked clearly above the shoulders of Joel Kiviranta\u2014who stands 5-foot-11\u2014before the puck hit the ice. The officials, however, let the goal stand anyway.<\/p>\n
Even with that frustration, Colorado pushed through. MacKinnon finished the night with two goals, giving him an NHL-best 24 on the season. Parker Kelly chipped in his sixth of the year, and Martin Ne\u010das put up three assists. Blackwood was solid, stopping 24 shots.<\/p>\n
For the Rangers, Panarin and Conor Sheary scored, and Igor Shesterkin put on a clinic for the most part, but even 39 saves wasn\u2019t enough to get the job done<\/p>\n
The action first started at 7:26 when Cale Makar was called for interference after throwing a reverse hit on J.T. Miller when the latter didn\u2019t have possession of the puck. The Rangers created some dangerous looks on the power play, but Colorado survived thanks to the post. Panarin and Will Cuylle were denied by the narrowest of inches.<\/p>\n
New York controlled most of the period with an aggressive forecheck that kept the Avalanche hemmed in and scrambling to get clean exits.<\/p>\n
Late in the frame, Ne\u010das broke loose for a breakaway, but Shesterkin shut him down and the period ended scoreless. It was a typical slow start from the Avalanche who only put up nine shots in the period.<\/p>\n
After a failed power play Colorado finally broke through after a great shift from the fourth line 7:06 into the second when Kelly redirected a Sam Malinski shot from his knees to make it 1\u20130. The play started with Ne\u010das working the puck behind the net and whipping a slick backhand pass up the wall to Malinski to set the whole sequence in motion. With some better energy Colorado managed to outshoot New York 13-8 in the frame and were rewarded with the lead.<\/p>\n
Sheary tied it 4:23 into the third, taking a saucer pass from Vincent Trocheck, deking around Ne\u010das, and outskated Makar before snapping the puck past Blackwood.<\/p>\n
Not long after, Colorado got a power play when Matthew Robertson tripped Valeri Nichushkin, but the shift took a rough turn when Trocheck\u2019s clearing attempt drilled Makar in the helmet. He headed straight to the bench but fortunately returned later after several shifts.<\/p>\n
With 4:34 left, MacKinnon struck again\u2014this time batting a rebound out of midair from a Ne\u010das shot to restore the Avalanche lead at 2-1.<\/p>\n
Just 26 seconds later, Brock Nelson appeared to have scored an insurance goal off a rebound. The officials initially signaled a goal, but video review revealed the puck never actually crossed the goal line. The call was correctly overturned, and the score remained 2\u20131.<\/p>\n
The Rangers pulled Shesterkin with 1:50 left and eventually tied it on Panarin\u2019s aforementioned controversial goal. After the failed challenge, the game went to overtime\u2014where MacKinnon ended things on his terms. His absolutely filthy backhand even surprised Shesterkin as Colorado walked away with the 3-2 victory.<\/p>\n
The Avalanche (20-2-6) wrap up the weekend of back-to-back matinees on Sunday against Trevor Zegras and the Philadelphia Flyers (15-8-3) at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Puck drop is set for 11 a.m. local time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nathan MacKinnon scored 2:46 into overtime to give the Colorado Avalanche a 3\u20132 win over the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,116778,159912,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-331652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-colorado-avalanche-game-coverage","11":"tag-colorado-avalanche-recaps","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}