In New York, the Rangers erased any bad taste left over from a Saturday loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets with a 2-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Monday night.
Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves, including a penalty shot late in the third period for the win.
Chris Kreider staked the Rangers to a 1-0 lead in the first period off a wicked pass from Mika Zibanejad across the goal mouth at 14:11.
“That was a hard-fought win,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “They play hard and they’re a young team that’s trying to move in the right direction. … It was pretty gutsy.”
Arizona got even with five minutes gone in the middle frame on a power play strike by Clayton Keller
“That was a really good game,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “I think we played really well the first two periods, started the third really well. When they took the lead, I did not like our answer. I think we were trying to do too much from there but that was a [heck] of a game.”
Vincent Trocheck put the Rangers in front at 8:26 of the third on a power play goal off a tip in on an Artemi Panarin shot from the blue line.
Shesterkin stopped Jason Zucker on a penalty shot at 15:12 of the third.
New York also killed off a two-skater penalty late in the second and into the early seconds of the third period. Barclay Goodrow, Alexis Lafreniere, and Ryan Lindgren.
“We have to get one there,” Arizona defenseman Sean Durzi said. “I think that’s what it comes down to. And you can look at so many aspects of that game. To get one there, it’s a different game, and it didn’t happen for us. They made a couple of good blocks … but it’s something we’ll work on.”
Three bad penalties that could have cost the Rangers the game.
“[The penalty kill] came up big, especially that first part of the 5-on-3,” said Zibanejad,. “A two-minute 5-on-3, that’s not easy and the guys on the ice did an amazing job. And ‘Shesty’ as well to keep us in it and honestly, surviving those two minutes, I thought we got some momentum out of that and came up with our own power-play goal.”
Shesterkin was calm and well-positioned on the penalty shot.
“On the penalty shot, it is more like mind games, so when [Zucker] moved on the right side, I was looking for the shot on the blocker side,” Shesterkin said.
Connor Ingram made 26 saves in the loss.
“[Ingram] was really good,” Tourigny said. “He was rock solid for us there. It’s not even a topic. We know what he can do.”
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