The Colorado Avalanche defeated the New York Rangers 3-2 on Tuesday night thanks to a shootout goal from Evan Rodrigues and 44 stops from Alexandar Georgiev, who defeated his former team.
In the fourth round of the tiebreaker, Rodrigues defeated Igor Shesterkin of the Rangers, and Georgiev then stopped Alexis Lafreniere from clinching the victory. Artemi Panarin scored for the Rangers, while Mikko Rantanen also scored for Colorado in the shootout.
For the Avalanche, regulation goals were scored by Logan O’Connor and Valeri Nichushkin.
Having improved to 4-0-1 on the season, Georgiev, who spent five seasons with the Rangers as a backup, first to Henrik Lundqvist and then to Igor Shesterkin, pumped his fist in joy and was surrounded by teammates near the blueline. Before being moved to the Avalanche, who were the reigning Stanley Cup champions, in the offseason, the 26-year-old goalie with Bulgarian ancestry had 58 victories and eight shutouts for the Rangers.
Before traveling to Finland for two games versus Columbus, Colorado played the first of three games in the New York region and dominated the Rangers.
Nichushkin’s team-leading seventh goal, sixth on the power play, gave the Avalanche the lead with 8:20 remaining in the first period. Defenseman Cale Makar fired a whistling shot that Nichushkin tipped beyond Shesterkin.
