Avs Fall 5-1 to Rangers
The official game recap New York Rangers vs Colorado Avalanche.Ryan Callahan scored twice, and the New York Rangers defeated the Colorado Avalanche 5-1 on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.
Brad Richards, Derick Brassard and Anton Stralman each had a goal, and Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves for the Rangers (31-23-3), who have won four straight for the first time this season.
Gabriel Landeskog scored for Colorado (36-15-5), while Semyon Varlamov stopped 37 of 42 shots.
The loss ended the Avalanche's four-game winning streak.
The Rangers, who hadn't played in four days, dictated the early pace against the Avalanche, who had won 2-1 in overtime on Monday against the New Jersey Devils. New York outshot Colorado 20-4 and outscored it 2-0 in the first period.
New York opened the scoring after Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson carried the puck deep into the offensive zone and fell along the half-wall. The turnover led to a 2-on-1 rush with Rangers forward Carl Hagelin carrying the puck alongside Callahan.
Hagelin made a cross-ice pass to the Rangers captain, sending Callahan in alone on Varlamov. Callahan beat the Russian goaltender on a backhand shot for his 10th of the season with 5:44 remaining in the period; he entered with three goals in his previous 28 games.
Callahan would benefit from another takeaway later in the period. Colorado's Nate Guenin's cross-ice pass in his zone was intercepted by Brad Richards, who carried the puck toward the net before finding Callahan alone in the slot. Callahan scored on Varlamov's glove side with a wrist shot that gave New York a 2-0 lead with 2:25 left.
Lundqvist made one of his finest stops of the night with 13:30 remaining in the second period while Dan Girardi served two minutes for holding. The goalie snared Nathan MacKinnon's wrist shot from the left circle with his glove. Landeskog would reply seven seconds later, taking MacKinnon's pass in the slot before beating Lundqvist for his 17th of the season at 6:37 to cut the Rangers' lead to one goal.
The 2-1 score didn't last long as Stralman gave New York a 3-1 lead 53 seconds later. The defenseman's wrist shot from the point beat Varlamov to the blocker side for his first goal since April 19.
Lundqvist's best stretch came late in the period when Colorado had a 5-on-3 power play for 1:50 after Girardi was called for high-sticking shortly after Chris Kreider was whistled for holding. The Swedish Olympian made two quick stops on MacKinnon from the left side before stoning Landeskog at the lip of the crease. Lundqvist then stopped Duchene in close shortly after Girardi finished serving his minor to keep the Rangers up by two.
With New York leading 3-1 in the third period, Brassard scored at 1:58 following a blind pass from behind the Colorado net by Mats Zuccarello. Brassard partially fanned on the shot, but the puck bounced off Ryan O'Reilly's skate and past Varlamov for his 10th goal of the season.
Richards finished the scoring with his 15th tally of the year with 1:36 remaining.
Colorado continues its four-game, Metropolitan Division road trip Thursday in Philadelphia before playing the New York Islanders in its final game before the Olympic Break.
-- by NHL.com --
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05/02/2014 - 10:00
