After two sub-par efforts, Igor Shesterkin made 30 saves on Thursday night for the New York Rangers in a 3-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden.
“I thought he was excellent,” New York coach Gerard Gallant said. “People were worried about him. I wasn’t. He played really well tonight, made some real key saves at key times.”
Pittsburgh dropped to 41-21-10.
“We’re competing hard,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’re in every game. When you look at the last handful of games, I feel like the team’s played pretty hard. We haven’t got the result, but we just have to continue to stay with it. That’s the message that we gave the guys after the game.
“We’ve got to learn through each experience. We can’t dwell on it.”
Frank Vatrano gave New York a 1-0 lead in the middle frame, it was his sixth goal since coming to the Rangers in a trade ahead of the deadline.
“At the end of the day, you have to be ready for whatever competition you’re playing,” Vatrano said. “No matter who we play we will be ready for whatever comes across. … When the playoffs happen you kind of put the regular season behind you. The playoffs are long. It’s a couple of months, so you’ve got to take it one game at a time.
“You don’t worry about what happened in the regular season. The playoffs are a whole different animal.”
Artemi Panarin scored midway through the frame for a 2-0 lead to New York, it was his 20th of the campaign.
“It was a very important game,” Shesterkin said. “I think the boys put up a good game. There were a lot of blocked shots, great goals. They really put out.”
Dryden Hunt iced the game with a long empty-net goal with 38 seconds left on the clock for the 3-0 final.
Tristan Jarry made 21 saves in the Pens loss.
“It’s motivation for us to get back in the win column,” Jarry said. “I think we’ve been doing the right things. I just don’t think we’ve been getting the bounces and some of the points in the last couple games.”
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