"At the end of the night, everybody worked hard and gave their best," coach Alain Vigneault said. "That's what you want from your players. A couple areas we're going to address before tomorrow's game and we're going to try and get better. That's what we can do at the end of the day."
Colorado, who have now won nine consecutive games, took the lead nine minutes into the contest when Erik Johnson redirected a Mikko Rantanen pass that caught Henrik Lundqvist out of position.
Nathan MacKinnon, a midseason candidate for the League's MVP, scored his 23rd of the season 3:24 into the second to double the advantage for the home team.
Pavel Buchnevich cut into that lead with a power play goal 3:31 later. Mats Zuccarello fired a pass to the slot from the half boards and Buchnevich tipped it on goal and through Jonathan Bernier for his 13th goal of the year and second in as many games.
Colorado added an empty-net goal with less than a second remaining.
It's unknown if re-enforcements are on their way for the Rangers Sunday night in Los Angeles, as Vigneault said both Hayes and Staal are 50/50 to rejoin the lineup, while he was unsure of the status of Grabner.
But to a man, the Rangers are not using this string of injuries to key components of the team as an excuse for a lack of results. They've used the mantra of next man up whenever they've been bitten by the injury bug, and that hasn't changed during this latest string of injuries and illnesses.
"It's great to see the guys coming in and making the most of this opportunity," said Lundqvist, who made 34 saves in the loss. "You can't find any excuses for not going after that win. It doesn't matter if you're missing two guys or 10 guys, the mentality is you go out and try and get the W."
