MacKinnon scores twice, Avalanche edge Rangers in OT

NEW YORK -- Nathan MacKinnon scored 2:46 into overtime to lift the Colorado Avalanche to their 20th win of the season, 3-2 against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

"I think he could have five (goals today)," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said of MacKinnon. "I thought (Igor) Shesterkin robbed him on multiple occasions and on that one, he kind of waited him out, made a beautiful move after dancing around in the zone for a while."

MacKinnon got the puck from Cale Makar and went wide to the boards, cut back in, through the Rangers defense, deked to his backhand and roofed in the winner, his League-leading 24th goal and second of the game.

The Rangers had Noah Laba, Will Cuylle and Will Borgen on the ice each for more than a minute spent mostly defending before MacKinnon sliced through them to score.

"The last time I cut back before the goal I heard someone say, 'They're tired,' and that kind of gave me a little confidence, I think, that I could try something and if I mess up, I can still get it back because they're gassed," MacKinnon said. "I think it might have been 'Colts' (Ross Colton). Good call by him."

Parker Kelly scored, Martin Necas had three assists, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 24 saves for the Avalanche (20-2-6), who became the first NHL team to 20 wins this season.

Colorado had a 17-game point streak (14-0-3) end in a 6-3 loss to the New York Islanders on Thursday.

"Often you get on a run and you lose one and it sort of snowballs to two, three or four before you kind of pick yourself up," Bednar said. "But we were able to do it tonight, especially in the areas we wanted to be better at, on the checking side of things."

Artemi Panarin scored the tying goal with under a minute remaining in the third period, and Conor Sheary scored his first of the season for the Rangers (15-12-3), who have points in six of their past seven games (5-1-1). Shesterkin made 39 saves.

"I thought we played a good game," Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. "I thought it was a really good hockey game. I thought our team played hard. I thought we were competitive all night. Obviously, we're playing against one of the better teams in the League. That was a really good game."

MacKinnon gave Colorado a 2-1 lead at 15:26 of the third period when he was by the left post and batted the puck into the net off a rebound of a point shot by Necas.

Panarin tied it 2-2 at 19:18, with a one-timer from the left point through traffic with Shesterkin pulled for an extra skater. Cuylle was in front of the net and the puck went in over Blackwood's right shoulder.

It was the Rangers' second 6-on-5 tying goal late in the third period in the past three games.

"They're getting pucks to the net," Sullivan said. "One of the things I thought earlier in the year 6-on-5, we're trying to pass it into the net and it's hard. When you look at 6-on-5 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 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 because of the traffic at the netfront. Those are the way 6-on-5 goals are scored in my view, so we were trying to encourage them to put more pucks in play, create those broken plays, let's get numbers around the net and try to win pucks and create off a shot. I think they're buying into that."

Kelly gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 7:06 of the second period with a netfront deflection of Sam Malinski's shot from the right point.

"I thought they took it to us early and after that, it was our game," MacKinnon said. "Good response."

The Rangers scored two game-tying goals in the third period, the first from Sheary, who made it 1-1 at 4:23 of the third period.

Vincent Trocheck hit Sheary with a pass up the ice and the forward cut across the offensive zone to get away from Necas. He had Makar trying to lift his stick from behind when he got into the left face-off circle, fended off the check and scored with a shot over Blackwood's glove on the far side.

"I just realized there was a forward back on 'D,' so it was late in a shift and I thought I could take advantage of maybe him being tired and catch him by surprise," Sheary said. "I was able to do that and get a mini breakaway and have a nice shot and have it go in. I was waiting a long time for it, so it felt nice for it to go in."

NOTES: Colorado improved to 2-3 in games decided in overtime. MacKinnon, Makar and Necas, who combined for the OT winner Saturday, were also on the ice the three times the Avalanche allowed a goal in overtime. … Colorado is 8-0-3 in its past 11 games against New York. … Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick was activated off injured reserve and dressed as the backup. He didn't dress for six consecutive games because of a lower-body injury, and could start against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.