Shesterkin, Rangers down Avs

It started ugly. Two goal surrendered on four shots and a 902 deficit.

Igor Shesterkin made his NHL debut on Tuesday night for the New York Rangers in the nets.

His start was sketchy, but he finished by making 27 saves on the next 28 shots to win his first start, 5-3 over the visiting Colorado Avalanche.

Brady Skjei had a goal from the blue line for the Rangers in win over Avs – file photo by Lewis Bleiman

“On my way to the arena my hands were shaking, couldn’t even drink water,” Shesterkin said (through a translator). “But as I stepped on the ice, I felt everyone’s support and energy and it really helped me.”

Nathan MacKinnon and J.T. Compher staked the Avs to the early 2-0 lead.

“I didn’t like the game at all,” Avs head coach Jared Bednar said. “We didn’t win enough races, we didn’t win enough battles. We weren’t physical enough when we didn’t win the race. We got outworked, outskated.”

Compher had two goals in the game.

“Honestly, I wasn’t panicking,” Shesterkin said. “I kind of just laughed it off and I saved the next goals and gained confidence as the game went on.”

Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Ryan Strome, scored for the Rangers.

“For [Shesterkin] to come up in this, big pressure, home ice, I mean, that’s not an easy game. Madison Square Garden, it’s the big stage,” Strome said. “He did a great job, made some great saves in the third. I just loved his composure. I thought he was so calm. He didn’t look nervous at all, just kind of went about his business and looked good.”

Mika Zibanejad and Brady Skjei also scored for New York.

“He (Shesterkin) just doesn’t seem phased at all, like so calm the way he plays in net,” Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said. “That obviously spreads. I mean he started off with that sauce pass, really good. It’s good to see him get the first win that early. We were feeding off of him.”

[WATCH: All Avalanche vs. Rangers highlights]

Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves in the loss.

“It just wasn’t good enough,” Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog said. “In the D zone, we were just standing still and looking around. They’ve got a lot of offensive creativity and we just kind of stood around and we weren’t really taking charge.”