Postgame Wrap-Up: Varly Leads Avs Against Rangers

NEW YORK--Despite a strong effort led by goaltender Semyon Varlamov, the Colorado Avalanche fell 3-2 in a shootout to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.
"For the most part, I thought we were doing some good things," said Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. "We had good energy, created a few scoring chances and then I thought that the second period, same kind of thing.
"I thought we got better in the second and more committed defensively, we gave up a couple chances on some bad reads and a couple bounces that I didn't like, you know guys not coming back, but for the most part a pretty fun, entertaining hockey game that ends up in a shootout."

The Rangers outshot Colorado 19-7 in the first period, six of those shots coming on the power play, and Varlamov kept the Avs in the game with a season-high 18 saves in the frame.
The Samara, Russia, native made 41 saves in the contest, including 13 while the Avs were shorthanded.
"He was great again, he has been really good, really sharp this season," forward Mikko Rantanen said of his netminder. "It's fun to watch him. We know if there is a shot, he has always a chance to save it. It's easy to play in front of him because you know if you don't block some shot or it goes through, you still have a great goalie there who is going to most of the time stop it."

The Avalanche went 5-for-6 on the penalty kill, surrendering a 5-on-4 goal for the first time this campaign. The club is now 27-for-29 (93.1 percent) in short-handed situations, which ranks second in the league to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"[Varlamov] was at his best on our penalty kill again, I mean we took six penalties," said Bednar. "Gave up some good looks, a couple seam passes there that he looked really quick on, was making the reads. I thought their guy was good too. We had a couple of really good looks through the second, a couple in the third, one in overtime, and he made some big saves too.
"I thought it was a pretty well played hockey game. There are obviously some things that we have to clean up on the defensive side of things, but we also did some good things offensively--getting to the net, coming up with some rebounds. Shootout, you can flip a coin for me how it's going to turn out."
Typically, Varlamov is almost a sure bet in the skills competition but the loss snaps a nine-game shootout win streak for the goaltender. He is now 25-9 all-time in the one-on-one tiebreaker as a member of the Avalanche.
"It's always positive getting a point, especially in the beginning of the season," said Varlamov. "Of course we wanted two, but it is what it is. I thought we played a good game we just couldn't score more goals than the Rangers."
MacKINNON STREAKING:Nathan MacKinnon scored for the sixth game in a row--his seventh tally of the season--breaking the Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques franchise record for longest season-opening goal streak. The previous mark was held by the Nordiques' Mats Sundin at five outings in 1992-93.
It also sets a new career-long goal streak for the Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, native. It is the first time a Colorado player has scored in six straight contests since Milan Hejduk (seven) from Feb. 11-23, 2003.

The marker came after Mikko Rantanen fired the puck from the blue line, and it deflected off of Gabriel Landeskog's stick and then to MacKinnon's shin pad. The tally tied the game at 2-2 with 13 seconds remaining in the second period.
"When you get a goal at the end of the period, it helps a lot so it gave us energy," said Rantanen. "I think we had the chances in the third to win the game, but sometimes hockey is like that. It doesn't go in and the other team gets the bounces but we just have to move forward now."
ALL THE ASSISTS:Rantanen's helper on MacKinnon's tally also extended the Nouisiainen, Finland, native's season-opening assist streak to six games.
He is the first Avalanche player to begin a campaign with assists in each of his first six outings since John-Michael Liles in 2010-11 (nine games). It is also tied for the second-longest assist streak to start a season in franchise history (Paul Stastny, 2008-09).
In addition to Rantanen's streak, Tyson Barrie registered his fourth helper of the year, lengthening his assist streak to three outings.