Rangers tumble in Colorado; Red Wings top Islanders

DENVER — Valeri Nichushkin scored two goals, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen also scored and the Avalanche beat the Rangers, 4-2, on Tuesday night for its fifth straight win.

Nathan MacKinnon notched two assists and Darcy Kuemper stopped 26 shots in Colorado’s second victory over the Blueshirts in less than a week. The Avalanche beat the Rangers, 7-3, at Madison Square Garden last Wednesday.

Ryan Strome and Julien Gauthier scored and Alexander Georgiev stopped 27 shots for the Rangers, who have dropped two in a row and three of four following a seven-game winning streak that capped an 11-1 surge.

Nazem Kadri returned from a two-game absence with two assists and leads Colorado with 36 points. But defenseman Devon Toews tested positive for COVID-19 and was placed in the NHL’s health and safety protocol.

The Avalanche is also without captain Gabriel Landeskog, expected to miss a couple of weeks with a lower-body injury sustained Friday against Detroit.

Rantanen gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 12:18 of the first with his 13th goal, and Makar got his 13th on a power play late in the period.

RED WINGS 2, ISLES 1

In Detroit, the Red Wings’ defense tightened up behind a strong performance from their goaltender.

Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 33 shots and the Red Wings ended a three-game skid with a 2-1 victory over the Islanders on Tuesday night.

Detroit had given up an average of six goals during the losing streak.

“I thought we were much better defensively than we had been in the last few games, and we were making chances offensively,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We could have easily been up more than we were after two periods.”

Nedeljkovic nearly earned his first shutout of the season but the Islanders scored with 2:33 remaining after pulling goalie Ilya Sorokin for an extra skater.

“They had a lot of shots, but our guys were keeping everything to the outside, so it wasn’t as hard as it looked,” Nedeljkovic said.