The Rangers scored a game-tying goal during six-on-five play for the second time in three contests Saturday afternoon against the Avalanche.
“They’re buying into the structure,” head coach Mike Sullivan said after his team lost 3-2 in overtime to Colorado at the Garden. “They’re executing. They’re making good plays, they’re getting pucks to the net. One of the things I thought earlier in the year was, six-on-five, we’re trying to pass it in the net. It’s hard. When you look at six-on-five goals, just by nature of the amount of bodies on the ice, a lot of it is just funneling pucks to the net, trying to outnumber in and around the net, having traffic at the net. You may get a deflection, you may get a rebound opportunity or you get one of those sifters from the blue line that the goalie has a hard time finding it because of the traffic at the net front. Those are the way six-on-five goals are scored, in my view.”
With an empty net and an extra skater on the ice late in the third period, the Blueshirts maintained possession in Colorado’s zone and worked the puck around.
Artemi Panarin then blasted his 10th goal of the season past Avs netminder Mackenzie Blackwood with 40.9 seconds left in regulation to even the score at 2-2.
Panarin’s team-leading 31st point ultimately forced overtime and secured at least one point for the home team, but Nathan MacKinnon won it for the Avs with his second goal of the game in the extra period.
“We were trying to encourage them to put more pucks in play, create those broken plays,” Sullivan continued. “Let’s get numbers around the net and let’s try to win pucks and then create off the shot, so to speak. I think they’re buying into that.”
After swapping Conor Sheary and Jonny Brodzinski in the first period of the Rangers’ win in Ottawa, Sullivan stuck with the same alignment Saturday afternoon.
Sheary lined up on the right wing of the Rangers top line alongside Vincent Trocheck and J.T. Miller, while Brodzinski skated on the left wing of the fourth unit with Sam Carrick and Taylor Raddysh.
In his 26th game of the season, Sheary scored his first goal as a Ranger.
It marked the 33-year-old’s first NHL goal since April 11, 2024.
Goalie Jonathan Quick was activated off injured reserve Saturday and suited up for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury on Nov. 22.
Backing up Igor Shesterkin against the Avalanche, Quick is projected to return to the crease in Sunday night’s matchup with the Golden Knights.
Shesterkin made his seventh start in 13 days Saturday afternoon, stopping 39 of the 42 shots he faced.
Adam Edstrom was sidelined for a third consecutive game with a lower-body injury.
The Rangers placed defenseman Brandon Scanlin on waivers Saturday in light of his clearance to play.
After rehabbing a lower-body injury to start the season, Scanlin has to clear waivers in order to be officially assigned to the Wolf Pack.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
