With the New York Rangers in dire need of a win, Igor Shesterkin turned in a spectacular performance on Friday. The goalie made 41 saves to end his team’s three-game losing streak in a 3-1 victory against the host Dallas Stars.
The Rangers’ top goalie entered play having lost three of his past four starts. However, the 28-year-old Russian was also in the middle of a larger slump. The Friday win marked the first time Shesterkin allowed one or fewer goals since a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 1.
In between, he allowed 58 goals in 19 games (3.48 goals-against average), posting a .902 save percentage and a 7-12-0 record.
It also was the fourth time this season he recorded 40 or more saves.
Shesterkin teamed up with the Rangers’ penalty-killing unit to deny the Stars on all of the host’s seven power-play opportunities, stopping 21 shots with his team short-handed. The seven power-play chances not only represented a season high for the Stars, it also was the most the Rangers allowed this season.
The stops included a five-minute major against Matt Rempe, whom the Rangers recalled from Hartford earlier this week. The 6-foot-9 forward also received a game misconduct for elbowing Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen with 12:47 left in regulation. Shesterkin stopped nine shots on that power play alone.
Roope Hintz put Dallas up less than two minutes into the game on a goal assisted by Nils Lundkvist and Jason Robertson.
Reilly Smith tied the game nearly nine minutes later on a short-handed breakaway that started when the puck skipped over Thomas Harley’s stick at the blueline in the Stars’ attacking zone.
Vincent Trocheck put the Rangers up with 4:40 left in the first period. Adam Fox and Artemi Panarin, New York’s leading scorer who returned to the lineup after missing two games with an upper-body injury, got the assists.
Chris Kreider’s empty-netter with 2:06 left finished the scoring and ended his seven-game goal drought.
Shesterkin’s performance overshadowed a solid start by Stars netminder Jake Oettinger, who saved 27 shots.
–Field Level Media
