Rangers top Avs, 3-2, after penalties Trocheck hits for winner on skills

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Long time Rangers fans can be excused for being pessimistic year after year. Disappointment has always reigned supreme.

In Denver, on Thursday night, the New York Rangers went toe to toe with the Avalanche and skated off with a 3-2 win after penalties.

Vincent Trocheck was credited with the deciding marker on skills.

If there was one game in the last five weeks or so that was penciled in as a test, it was this one.

It was the dullest of exciting matches.

“I just think it was tight, like we were really focusing on playing tight defense. They’ve been pretty tight as well,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “We knew that coming in here, with their team speed and their skill, and they have game breakers, that we needed to play the game hard in the right way, and I thought that we did that it.”

Igor Shesterkin made 38 saves through extra time. He made two saves on skills.

The Rangers moved to 49-20-4 off their fourth straight win, and sixth in seven matches.

After a really dull opening stanza, the Avs took a 1-0 lead with 33 seconds left in the middle frame on a strike by Casey Mittelstadt, who hit from the slot on a wicked snap shot to the far side.

“Obviously, the Rangers have a lot of skill, and that’s going to be a good postseason team,” the Avalanche’s Cale Makar said. “These are the types of teams we’re going to see in the next whatever, five, six, seven games here. So we’re finishing the season run with a lot of playoff teams, which is good for us.”

The Avalanche dropped to 46-21-6 off their second straight loss.

Nathan MacKinnon had his home point streak, and active overall streak stopped in the loss.

“I think it’s a positive thing. Guys are excited for him, and guys get excited on our team when other players hit milestones and have big nights,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s a tight group in there, and so I think it’s been a real positive thing, especially down the last little bit. I don’t think anyone thinks about it when he’s at 15, 16, 17, 20, whatever. But you start getting to when he starts passing the No. 3 and No. 2 on the list, I think guys are all like really rooting for him.”

With three minutes gone in the third period, Kaapo Kakko banked a shot off the Avs goalie for a 1-1 tie. He had taken an initial shot and recovered the puck below the goal line before lifting it for the strike.

Th3 Rangers took a 2-1 lead on a power play marker from Chris Kreider near the midway point of the third. He collected a rebound of a shot by Artemi Panarin to push it home for the lead.

“We’ve gone into a shootout every time we play these guys. They’re a really good hockey team and I think we did a really good job of containing them offensively,” Trocheck said. “With a team like that, that’s a tall order.”

The Avalanche forced extra time when Devon Toews deflected a shot off a Rangers’ defenseman at 12:47 for the 2-2 tie.

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Alexandar Georgiev made 23 saves in the loss.

“We got to remain even-keeled, and I think that’s what the best teams do,” Makar said. “I felt like tonight, even when they got the second one, we were right back on the horse and getting pucks to their net.”