Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves and three more in the shootout as the host New York Rangers earned a crucial 1-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.
Vincent Trocheck scored in the second round of the shootout for the lone goal of the skills competition as the Rangers improved to 5-0-2 in their past seven games after dropping 15 of 19 (4-15-0).
Shesterkin stopped Kent Johnson in the first round and Adam Fantilli in the second after Trocheck deked Daniil Tarasov and lifted it over the goalie’s stick.
After making stick saves on Johnson and Fantilli, Shesterkin finished off his 17th career regular-season shutout with a diving pad save on Kirill Marchenko. It was Shesterkin’s second shutout this season and first since a 6-0 win at Pittsburgh in the season opener.
Shesterkin made 15 saves in the opening period then 12 more the rest of the way, including a stop on Damon Severson with 1:55 in regulation.
Tarasov made 26 saves for the Blue Jackets, whose six-game winning streak was halted. Columbus also is 10-2-2 in its past 14 games and took its first loss in five shootouts this season.
Before being beaten by Trocheck, Tarasov stopped Mika Zibanejad twice on breakaways in overtime, denying him with a pad save with about 3 1/2 minutes left and again in the final minute with his stick. He also made a defensive play on Alexis Lafreniere to prevent a wraparound try with about 2 1/2 minutes left.
Shesterkin helped the Rangers survive getting dominated in the opening period with a sliding stick save with 15:20 left and a blocker stop on James Van Riemsdyk’s backhand try nearly four minutes later.
Shesterkin was aided by his teammates making defensive plays in front of him, including Braden Schneider deflecting an attempt by Werenski into the netting early in the second following consecutive saves by Tarasov on Zibanejad and K’Andre Miller.
Tarasov stopped Adam Fox on a tip-in attempt with 5:38 left, then made point-blank stops on Artemi Panarin and Will Cuylle in the final four minutes. In the opening minute of the third, Tarasov slid across the crease for a pad save on Cuylle’s attempt from the doorstep.
–Field Level Media
