Avalanche forward Artturi Lehkonen scored the game-winning goal with 15 seconds left in the 5-4 victory over the New York Rangers on Sunday afternoon. The two points put Colorado ahead of Minnesota for the Central Division’s No. 3 spot, for now. The Wild faceoff against the Chicago Blackhawks later this evening.
It was a high-energy, high-scoring first period for both teams. Defenseman Cale Makar scored less than a minute after newly acquired forward Jack Drury netted his first goal in burgundy and blue. Sam Carrick got the Rangers on the board at 12:50 and Vincent Trocheck tied the game at 11:24. Makar scored his second with about five minutes left in the opening frame.
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Each team added one in the second period — Juuso Parssinen for the Avs and Will Borgen for the Rangers — to keep it close with New York down by one going into the final period.
Artemi Panarin tied the game with five minutes left on a rebound he put past Mackenzie Blackwood.
Makar got out of the penalty box with less than 25 seconds left in the third to connect with Lehkonen for the top-shelf game-winner.
Good: Period of Firsts
The first score of the game was Drury’s first goal as an Av and Keaton Middleton’s first point with the assist.
Martin Necas earned his first points with Colorado, his 40th and 41st assists of the season, both on Makar’s goals.
“I thought he was great. That line was good. Marty (Necas) could have had three goals himself — hit two posts, did a lot of good things, set up Cale on the one. He was a really good player for us tonight. I thought they both (Necas and Drury) were actually impactful,” head coach Jared Bednar said.
Good: Power-Play Improvement
One of Makar’s two goals came on the power play, which the Avalanche have been struggling with for a bit. Nathan MacKinnon fed a wide-open Makar the puck from the bottom of the dot to the point. Makar ripped it straight down the lane and beat Igor Shesterkin top shelf.
“It’s frustrating having the power play go like that. It’s just some different looks right now with Marty coming in yesterday. It was different and then today, we just felt a little more comfortable,” MacKinnon said. “Cale (with an) awesome goal, and then Marty had great couple one timers, he had a good look, moving the puck well. So hopefully we can do that again.”
Bad: Costly Defensive Mistakes
Several Avalanche errors led to breakdowns which allowed the Rangers to find the back of the net.
Parker Kelly had a broken stick and couldn’t stop a pass through the crease from Matt Rempe to Carrick. But Rempe beat Sam Malinski off the puck to get it to his teammate for their first goal of the game.
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The Rangers’ second goal was a skilled play that started with Panarin getting the puck out of the D-zone along the boards to Alex Lafrenière. He deked Sam Girard and passed it across to Trocheck who beat Miles Wood to rip it past Blackwood.
“We did some dumb stuff, and it cost us, so we got to clean up a few things, but I thought we got good contributions throughout our lineup, and to be able to sort of stick with it and end it that way, it was nice,” Bednar said.
Reilly Smith’s rebound trickled behind Blackwood and Borgen skated in quick enough to poke it to the back of the net for goal No. 3.
Trocheck shot it on Blackwood who stopped it but the rebound bounced out and Jonathan Drouin missed checking Panarin as they were both skating to the net. Panarin grabbed the puck and put it past Blackwood to tie the game.
