In Manhattan, Igor Shesterkin made 36 saves as the New York Rangers defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1, on Monday night.
Igor Shesterkin got the win for the New York Rangers
The win kept the Rangers within four points of the last playoff spot in the East.
“When you play more and when you play a lot you grow more confident, you get more trust, you help the team win,” Shesterkin said. “The guys block a lot of shots in front of you, and that’s also helpful. Today we played a very smart hockey game defensively and offensively and the result was as it should have been. We’re giving ourselves a chance to fight for the playoffs.”
The Boston Bruins maintained their lead with a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins by the same score.
“We did a good job creating chances. We definitely could’ve limited a few more for them,” the Sabres’ Casey Mittelstadt said. “But we created chances and the goalie played well. There’s sometimes where we’ve got to bear down and finish some of those. I guess that’s a positive. You always want to be creating chances. Some nights they’re going to go in and some nights they’re not.”
With the game tied 1-1 in the third period, Alexis Lafrenière converted a nifty pass from Ryan Strome, from below the goal and snapped home what would be the game-winner.
“I think everyone’s always confident in Sam,” Mittelstadt said. “He’s been doing it for a while now. He’s really stepped up lately. I think that’s pretty much as simple as you get him the puck and he’s been finishing and making plays. It’s not even so much the points, it’s making small plays all over the rink. He’s done a great job.”
Sam Reinhart potted the Sabres only goal in the middle frame, off the power play to tie the game at 1-1. His goal came with just a tick over three seconds left in the middle frame.
Brendan Smith gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 2:22 of the second period.
“I don’t think we were too happy with our first [period]. I thought they came on really well,” Smith said. “We knew what we had to do, we talked about it in the dressing room, and from the second it just continued to get better.
“It was kind of a trickle-down effect of just what we had to do and get better at and come through the system, and it took care of us. That’s what we’ve been preaching. If you follow the system, it will take care of us. Ultimately, the third period became our best because we wore them down.”
Mika Zibanejad scored off the Rangers’ power play in the third to give New York a little breathing space.
“I just thought they were playing faster than we were,” Rangers head coach David Quinn said. “There really is just no other answer for what happened in the first period. Then I thought the second was much better for us. A real kick in the [butt]. We give up that goal at the end of the period, just some sloppy penalty killing, which is uncharacteristic of us. You play back to back and you win the first one the way we did I think human nature kicks in, I don’t care what is at stake. I just thought they were the hungrier team at the start of the game and we were fortunate to get out if it 0-0.”
Zibanejad’s goal came off a sweet no look back pass from Chris Kreider at the right post.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 38 saves in the loss.
“Obviously they weren’t happy with their first period and they elevated,” Sabres head coach Don Granato said. “We came out right away in the second period, did not keep things simple. We made some passes back toward our net after entering the offensive zone. We just didn’t make some hard plays. We didn’t keep possession. We made some soft plays that caused that.”
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