NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Brian Leetch's season debut was just what he expected, except the loss.
Leetch made his return from a serious ankle injury but watched his New York Rangers relinquish a two-goal third-period lead in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
Defenseman Karlis Skrastins scored 74 seconds into the extra period, allowing the Avalanche to split a pair of games on their two-day New York-area road trip. They blew a pair of leads en route to Saturday's 4-3 loss in New Jersey.
A former Norris Trophy winner and perennial All-Star, Leetch missed all of training camp and the first nine games of the season with a severely bruised left ankle, the same injury that forced him out of 31 games in 2002-03.
"It's just like I expected," said Leetch, who is second in franchise history in games played. "It's a fast game when you're out there playing."
Leetch saw everything coming, with the exception of the loss. Although they earned a point, the Rangers had a 2-0 lead more than six minutes into the third period before allowing Colorado back into the game.
"This is disappointing," Rangers goaltender Mike Dunham said. "We have a 2-0 lead and we take a penalty and give them momentum. From that point, we were on our heels. We got a point, but we gave a point away tonight."
Travis Brigley scored his first career goal on the power play with 13:46 left in regulation and Alex Tanguay added his fifth of the season 4:40 later to tie it at 2-2.
Tanguay also set up Skrastins, who got off three shots in one sequence, finally putting a wrister off the right goalpost, goaltender Mike Dunham's left arm and into the net from the high slot.
It was the first goal of the season and 14th in 318 career games for Skrastins, a 29-year-old Latvian who was acquired during the offseason from Nashville for future considerations.
"I got a good pass from him," Skrastins said of the feed from Tanguay. "I had two good chances, two good shots."
More than five years after making his NHL debut, Brigley scored his first career goal, getting Colorado within 2-1 after Alexei Kovalev was called for cross-checking.
"That guy took a dive, but why put yourself in a situation like that?" Rangers coach Glen Sather asked. "The guy is hooking you and you got a spot in front of the net. There is a stoppage of play and you push him."
It was Brigley's fourth game of the season and 23rd career.
Tanguay tied it when he swatted a loose puck past Dunham following a wraparound attempt by Milan Hedjuk. Tanguay and Hejduk have nine- and six-game point streaks, respectively.
Peter Forsberg, who normally centers Tanguay and Hejduk on arguably the NHL's best line, sat out with a groin injury. The Avalanche also were without star winger Paul Kariya, who is nursing a bad wrist.
"We have a good team," Colorado goalie David Aebischer said. "We have a couple players hurt, but that's part of the game."
Aebischer made 22 saves for the Avalanche, who blew leads of 1-0 and 2-1 before losing to the Devils on Saturday. They have won four of their last six games overall.
"Yesterday, we didn't play well," Aebischer said. "We didn't show up and it cost us one point. Today, I thought we played well."
The Rangers did as well, at least for a while. With Dunham again playing superb in the nets, New York opened the scoring on Bobby Holik's power-play goal 6:42 into the first period and made it 2-0 when Mark Messier tallied 4:14 into the second.
It was the fourth goal of the season for Messier and his 1,849th career point, one behind the great Gordie Howe for second on the all-time list.
While they gave away a point, the Rangers earned one less than 24 hours after posting a 5-1 win in Montreal. They are 4-1-3-1 since starting the season with consecutive road losses.
"Our forwards are playing better, and there is a lot more help in our zone," Leetch said. "Once I got into the flow, I felt pretty good."
