In New York, a marathon, nine-round skills competition left the final decision on the stick of the New York Rangers’ K’Andre Miller on Tuesday night.
The defenseman calming skated and deposited the deciding goal in a 2-1 win for the Rangers over the Boston Bruins.
“A little nervous there, but it all worked out,” Miller said. “Coach kind of turned to me when their guy was up and I was like, ‘Really, you want me to go, am I hearing this right?’ But it was a fun opportunity and I’m glad I made the most out of it.”
Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves in the Rangers win. Shest3erkin left the ice in the extra session after a collision with Craig Smith of the Bruins.
“I thought he was done,” Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said. “The next thing I know I see him coming out and the trainer said to one of our coaches on the headset that he’s coming back out.”
He returned in time for the skills competition.
“The team’s medical staff came up to me and they gave me a questionnaire and I filled it out pretty quickly,” Shesterkin said. “Luckily I got out in time to make all those saves in the shootout.”
Alexandar Georgiev iced for the Rangers in goal in his absence.
Charlie Coyle scored for the Bruins early in the first period off an egregious back pass from Barclay Goodrow.
“We wanted to jump on them early and get the lead right away,” Coyle said. “They had their pushes and all that, but ‘Sways’ played great.”
Boston dropped to 27-16-4.
“Both goalies were very good tonight,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “That’s why it ended up 1-1 probably, a lot of good stops.”
Filip Chytil made the extra session necessary when he scored in the third period to tie the game.
“We hadn’t had body contact for two weeks and hadn’t played a game, so there was some rust in the first period,” Gallant said. “It wasn’t that bad. They had, I think, two scoring chances, and we had one from what I saw, so it wasn’t brutal, but it wasn’t what we wanted. I thought the second and third were real good.”
New York improved to 31-13-4.
Jeremy Swayman made 33 saves in the Bruins loss.
“I saw it in and then it trickled out,” Swayman said of the Chytil goal. “Obviously, I want that save back.”
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