Lafreniere scores in OT, Rangers rally past Avalanche

NEW YORK -- Alexis Lafrenière scored 1:53 into overtime, and the New York Rangers came back to defeat the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 at Madison Square Garden on Monday.

Mika Zibanejad dropped the puck back to Lafreniere, who kept it in the right face-off circle, cut in and scored with a wrist shot. Jonathan Quick was credited with the secondary assist after he came out of the net to clear the puck, nearly turning it over but setting the Rangers off on the rush.

"I shouldn't wander out that far, but it felt like the right play when I started skating," Quick said. "I thought I faked him; he didn't bite and I realized I was in a little bit of trouble. Luckily, I bobbled it a little bit and got it into the neutral zone. The boys were able to take care of it from there."

Artemi Panarin tied the game 1-1 at 11:17 of the third period.

Quick made 31 saves for the Rangers (31-16-3), who were playing their first game since a 7-2 win at the Ottawa Senators on Jan. 27.

"I think it was a good way to jumpstart post break and get going," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "We ended with a win. To come back and put one together, now you got something going and you try build on it from there. If you start stringing some along, that can definitely build some confidence."

Nathan MacKinnon scored for the Avalanche to extend his point streak to 14 games (13 goals, 16 assists) and his goal scoring streak to five games (nine goals). He has at least one point in 33 of 34 games since Nov. 20, totaling 65 points (26 goals, 39 assists).

MacKinnon has 85 points (32 goals, 53 assists), tied with Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the scoring lead in the NHL through 50 games.

Alexandar Georgiev made 27 saves for Colorado (32-14-4), which had won three straight games before the All-Star break.

"Even played hockey game, goes to overtime, I would have liked to have been able to grab the two points out of that, but I don't think we did enough after getting lead to extend the lead or make it tougher on them," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "I thought they actually got more jump as the game went on and we were a little bit tired." 

MacKinnon scored at 18:12 of the first period to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead. He took a pass from Cale Makar inside Colorado's defensive zone, picked up speed through the neutral zone, kept the puck on a solo rush and beat Quick five-hole with a wrist shot from the right circle.

Laviolette said the Rangers did not adjust to MacKinnon's speed. 

"That's on me," Laviolette said. "We knew what was coming at us, and sometimes I feel like I can do a better job of explaining things. We were in place, we were in position, but after that happened we made a quick adjustment inside the room and were able to handle that speed a little bit more."

The Avalanche had three power play chances before MacKinnon scored.

"Skating early, drawing penalties, a lot going on for us in the first period," Bednar said. "It would have been nice to capitalize on one of those power play opportunities, but all in all, I think that was our best period."

Panarin tied it 1-1 with 8:43 remaining in the third period. He got the puck behind the net, skated up the left wing, and held off Makar as he cut across the point before scoring with a wrist shot through traffic.

"We had a nice push at the end of the second after they had us hemmed in our zone for a while," Bednar said. "We pushed back, come in with the lead, and in the third they continued to push and it looks like we didn't do enough to secure the win."

Quick still had to come up big in the final minute to give the Rangers a chance in overtime. He stopped Mikko Rantanen on a one-timer from the slot with 58 seconds left. 

"Fortunately, it hit me and we were able to get it to OT," Quick said. 

NOTES: Zach Parise made his debut with the Avalanche after signing a one-year contract on Jan. 26. The forward had three shots on goal and drew a penalty in 11:24 of ice time. … MacKinnon is the first player in Avalanche history to have two point streaks of at least 14 games in the same season. He had points in 19 straight games from Nov. 20-Dec. 27. … Makar has points in seven straight games (three goals, eight assists). … Laviolette passed Al Arbour to move into seventh place on the NHL's list for most coaching victories all time (783). … Quick made his 757th career start, tying Gilles Meloche for 20th in NHL history. He also moved ahead of Mike Vernon on the all-time wins list with his 386th, putting him in 16th place.