The Colorado Avalanche hosted the New York Rangers in the final game of their four-game homestand. They entered with a 10-game point streak and winners of six games in a row. The Rangers were looking to snap their two-game losing streak and were looking to add their 10th road win of the season. Both teams were looking to add a win to their season in their first meeting of 2025-26. After the final horn, the Avalanche won 6-3 over the Rangers.
Game Recap
The first period saw a pair of goals, one from each side, the first coming from the visitors. The Rangers had a power play following a Sam Girard penalty, which they capitalized on quickly. A slap pass from Mika Zibanijad to JT Miller was successful, getting it by Scott Wedgewood to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead under 2:30 into the game. It took only one shot to get out front early.
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The Avalanche were pressing the whole period to tie the game, even having two power-play opportunities to find the goal to make it all square. However, Igor Shesterkin was shutting the door for the Rangers throughout the first 19 minutes of the period. Ultimately, Nathan MacKinnon would score a tap-in goal after getting a great pass from Martin Necas to the front of the net. The goal gave MacKinnon his 1,049th point, passing Peter Stastny for second all-time in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history. After one period, the game was tied 1-1 with shots on goal in favor of the Avalanche 10-6.
The second period saw another two goals, one from each side again, as both teams kept exchanging goals. The Rangers once again jumped out front just under four minutes into the period. Sam Carrick passed the puck in front of the Avalanche net, and Adam Edstrom scored his first of the season as he put his stick flat on the ice and quickly shot it over Wedgewood’s shoulder to go bar down. The Avalanche were once again pushing to tie the game, as they outshot the Rangers 14-4 in the period. They finally cashed in with the game-tying goal from Cale Makar.
Makar drove to the net after some slick passing by MacKinnon and Necas. He went around the goal and stuffed it before Shesterkin had time to make the stop. Makar’s seventh of the season tied the game 2-2 with 2:45 left in the middle frame.
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The third period saw a plethora of goals, five to be exact. Four of them came from the Avalanche as they poured it on late in the final frame. Brock Nelson gave the Avalanche their first lead of the game on the team’s fourth power-play opportunity. Wedgewood got the assist to record his first NHL point in exactly 170 games. Miller scored his second of the game, and second on the power play, to tie the game up. However, it only took 30 seconds for MacKinnon to score his second goal of the game, giving him three points on the night to regain the lead. Makar scored his second of the night on the empty net to give the Avalanche some insurance, and then it was followed up by Ross Colton scoring on the empty net as well to make it 6-3.
The Avalanche push their winning streak to seven games, along with their 11th straight game with a point, and points in 19 of 20 games. They finish the four-game homestand with four wins. They’re now 14-1-5 on the season and became the fourth team in NHL history to record one regulation loss in the first 20 games. Regarding the Rangers, they lost their third straight game and are now 10-10-2. It pushed their road record to 9-3-1 on the season.
