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Wolski's OT goal gives Avalanche another home win

Dec 22, 2007 - 6:38 AM By Derek Nagy PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DENVER (Ticker) -- One day after getting embarrassed by Minnesota's Marian Gaborik, the New York Rangers had their hearts broken by the Colorado Avalanche.

Wojtek Wolski converted the game winner just over a minute in overtime as the Avalanche downed the Rangers, 4-3, on Friday.

Just 1:18 into the extra session, Wolski tapped in a loose rebound past Henrik Lundqvist off a shot from Jeff Finger to send Colorado to its 14th home win in 17 tries this season.

"We were pretty excited to get out there," Wolski said. "The last game we got scored against in overtime, so I just wanted to make sure that I was playing well. Jeff came off the bench really strong and, without that shot from him, it wouldn't have been a goal."

For the Rangers, losing in overtime further extended the misery that started on Thursday when Gaborik became the first player since 1996 to score five goals in a single game.

"Colorado came after us and we played hard and, ultimately, they got the winner," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "But I liked the way our team came out after a tough one last night and found a way to get a point."

Marek Svatos set the Avalanche up for a potential win at 8:23 of the third period when he notched his 11th goal of the campaign in a workmanlike fashion, knotting the game at 3-3. Svatos finally worked the puck past Lundqvist after getting denied on two attempts from close range in the left crease.

Goaltender Peter Budaj recorded 20 saves for Colorado, which handed Joel Quenneville his 414th career win - significant because it allowed him to pass Jack Adams for 17th place on the all-time wins list.

"We tried to keep things simple tonight, get the pucks down low and I think work ethic will win a lot of the time," Wolski said. "It seems like if you do the little things, good things will go your way and we're happy (they) did tonight."

The loss ruined a strong bounceback effort from Lundqvist, who allowed all six goals in the loss to the Wild. He stopped 33 shots, including several saves in the opening period that kept the Rangers close.

"It's just tough," Lundqvist said. "We know we need the points right now and we were really close to getting the two points. We worked really hard but it felt like they were a little better than us tonight."

New York killed of a four-minute, double-minor penalty and a 5-on-3 advantage by Colorado. Lundqvist stopped two breakaways in the period and a point-blank chance right in front by Cody McCormick as he kept Colorado off the scoreboard despite a 16-10 shot advantage by the Avalanche after one period.

The Rangers capitalized on their lone power play of the first period to take a 1-0 lead. Scott Gomez found Brendan Shanahan right in front of the net and his one-timer just slipped past Budaj's legs.

A wild second period ensued that saw four goals, including three in less that two minutes.

Colorado tied it at 1-1 at just over three minutes into the second period as it took advantage of a power-play opportunity when Milan Hejduk nudged a shot through Lundqvist's legs.

Hejduk gave the Avs a short-lived 2-1 lead later in the period when he scored the first even-strength goal of the game at 7:38 on a one-timer that beat Lundqvist high in the right corner of the net.

"Any points are huge right now - especially at home - and we need to collect these points," Hejduk said. "It was a great team effort tonight and we got it."

New York came right back to knot the game at 2-2 when Michal Rozsival scored his ninth goal of the season just 26 seconds later on a slap shot that went right over Budaj's glove.

The Rangers, however, were not done, as Marc Staal redirected a high slapper from Chris Gomez 65 seconds later that went over Budaj's stick for a 3-2 lead.

Colorado has beaten New York seven consecutive times.