In New York, the Rangers sent Igor Shesterkin out to face the Calgary Flames on Monday night.
It seemed to have been a huge gamble given that the Flames were coming into Madison Square Garden riding a four-game win streak, and Shesterkin playing a lackluster stretch in the net.
“It was an important night for me, important shutout,” Shesterkin said.
Whether it was a gamble, faith in the goalie, or some other process, Shesterkin came through with 30 saves in a 2-0 shut out of the Flames.
“Honestly, I felt great all night, from the starting face-off until the end,” Shesterkin said.
The win pushed the Rangers to a record of 34-16-3.
“You could see he was on point tonight,” New York coach Peter Laviolette of Shesterkin. “Even when there was a breakdown or something was happening in a different part of the ice he was there on time, he arrived on time, in position and was there. I thought he was good.”
The effort and victory also wiped away the stink of the win on Friday over the Chicago Blackhawks in extra time. That effort was dismal, and the win was lucky.
The Rangers now have an active five-game streak working for them.
After a scoreless opening stanza, Will Cuylle parked a rebound of a shot by Kaapo Kakko in the back of the Flames net for a 1-0 lead to the Rangers.
“Just trying to get to the net, trying to simplify,” Cuylle said. “I knew it was going to be a rebound goal, something dirty in the crease, so I was just trying to get to the net.”
The goal came at 12:31 of the middle frame.
Shesterkin stood tall the rest of the way, fighting off the Calgary efforts to tie the game up, including a pair of brilliant saves in the third on shots by Calgary’s Blake Coleman.
“Obviously, we had a chance to sweep the road trip and put ourselves in a really good spot, and for whatever reason, it wasn’t our night tonight,” Coleman said. ” ‘Marky’ gave us a chance in a game we didn’t deserve, but we’ll take three wins on the trip. We won’t sit on this one. We’ll go home and take care of business.”
The Flames dropped to 25-23-5.
The Flames were scoreless in two power play chances, the Rangers went empty on three chances.
Near the nine0minute mark of the middle frame, the two clubs engaged in a fracas in front of the Flames net. The result was a pair of minors against Calgary, and three to the Rangers.
Jonathan Huberdeau was called for a minor 19 seconds later to end the Flames brief power play.
“Everybody knew he was (Shesterkin) going to get back to how he plays,” the Rangers’ Jacob Trouba said. “I think every player goes through slumps, it’s just more noticeable when it’s the goalie and everybody’s eyes see it more. But everybody goes through a stretch of games that they don’t like. I would just say it’s easier to hide at times when you’re a [skater].
“He works hard in practice, took that time to reset and he was great tonight.”
With the Calgary net empty, the Flames’ Noah Hanifin corralled the puck after it was cleared from the Rangers zone, before the New York’s Jimmy Vesey stole the puck off Hanifin’s stick turned and whipped the puck into the empty cage for a 2-0 final count on the scoreboard.
Jacob Markstrom made 29 saves in the loss.
“Jacob kept us in the game in the first period for sure,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “I thought we got a little bit better as the game went on, but their goaltender played well too tonight. He made some good saves at key times for them.”
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