NEW YORK – After a rare disappointing showing in a season in which they’ve established themselves as a clear-cut Stanley Cup favorite, the Colorado Avalanche came to Madison Square Garden on Saturday afternoon with a clear mission.

Win.

And they did.

Because the best player in the world wanted them to.

Nathan MacKinnon scored first the go-ahead goal late in the third period and then, after Artemi Panarin tied the game with 42 seconds remaining in regulation to send it overtime, simply took the game over from there and scored the game-winner in the extra session to give his team a 3-2 win over the New York Rangers in a thoroughly entertaining matinee.

It was a victory that came just two days after their 17-game point streak was snapped in a blowout loss to the New York Islanders, who handed them just their second regulation loss all season, keeping MacKinnon off the scoresheet in the process.

The 30-year-old, who won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player in 2024 and followed that up with MVP honors at the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off earlier this year for Team Canada, simply walked through the slot, unfurled a backhanded toe drag move to elude two defenders and send a laser on his backhand past Igor Shesterkin at the 2:46 mark of overtime to deliver when his team needed him the most.

He now leads the National Hockey League with 24 goals and 48 points in just 28 games, and has cemented his case as the most must-watch star in the league, showing an uncanny ability to simply take over a game in a league where very few legitimately can.

“I guess I did,” the humble superstar said when asked about his ability to take over games.

“It’s tight out there, it’s tough. Obviously, happy to score late and happy to get an OT winner, but we have so many amazing players that it makes my life really easy…tough night for us (Thursday) and giving up five (goals to the Islanders) isn’t great, but we needed to tighten it up defensively a bit, and I thought we did a pretty good job tonight.”

He’s right, of course. After allowing ten shots on goal in the first period to a hungry Blueshirts team that still walked away with a critical point in the standings, they buckled down to let just 16 more get onto goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood for the rest of the game, including none in overtime.

But, make no mistake, the story was MacKinnon once again showing why he’s reclaimed the crown as the best player in the world.

“That was fun to watch,” said veteran defenseman Brent Burns.  “I think him and (Martin Necas) and Cale (Makar) have a lot of speed out there, and it’s tough to defend against them for sure.  It’s hard to give him a shot, and he’s such a good passer too.  Just fun to watch.”

Head coach Jared Bednar echoed similar sentiments on what he had a front row seat to watch.

“I’m glad he got that one,” he said of the game-winner. “For more reasons than not.  I just think he could have had five tonight.  I thought Shesterkin robbed him on multiple occasions, but on that one, he kind of waited him out and made a beautiful move after working around for a while. Big goal for us, obviously, to get the team back on track after the loss the other night. (MacKinnon) had a really good performance, but he probably deserved more than just that last one.”