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.