Rangers blank Sharks, 1-0

In New York, Igor Shesterkin made 19 saves into the third period before leaving the ice with about five minutes gone in the final frame with an apparent lower-body injury.

“They’re telling me it’s not as bad as it looks,” Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said. “It’s not major yet. … The trainer just said don’t worry about it. That’s all he told me, minor lower-body (injury). We’ll see.”

Alexandar Georgiev iced the final 14:52 and preserved the 1-0 lead the Rangers were nursing over the San Jose Sharks.

New York’s Ryan Strome hit for the game’s only goal in the first period, off the power play.

“I think we’ve grown a lot in the last year or two and we’re able to handle these things no matter who goes down,” Strome said. “We’ve had a ton of games where we’ve played with 11 forwards because guys get hurt or whatever. I think guys responded well on the bench, just tightened up and made sure we helped him out.”

Georgiev will get the start Saturday versus the Chicago Blackhawks.

“He’s a good goaltender and he’s been waiting for an opportunity,” Strome said. “He went in there and finished her off and he’ll probably get in there tomorrow. That’s what good teams do, next man up. It was a good example of that tonight.”

The Sharks dropped to 13-10-1.

“If someone said before the game, we’re going to be 1-0 going into the third [with] a chance to win,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “We gave ourselves a chance to win. We couldn’t find any offense. Defensively we gave up a few chances at the end because we were opening it up, obviously, but for most of the game we wanted to manage the puck, we wanted to keep things tight, and I thought we did a pretty decent job of that.”

The Rangers improved to 15-4-3, and 9-1-0 in their last 10 games.

Adin Hill made 26 saves in the San Jose loss.

since Nov. 11.

“Our goalie played fantastic, made some huge saves, but if we can find that goal it’s a different game,” the Sharks’ Timo Meier said. “I thought defensively we did a good job; it’s just that offensive stuff, that extra inch to get in front of the net, if we can get that we’re going to have success.”