In Toronto, it seemed the New York Rangers won maybe three face offs on Monday night. Well, maybe that’s hyperbole, let’s say five.
The last face of their game with the Maple Leafs came in overtime, and that one they won.
Mika Zibanejad pushed the puck forward off the drop and onto the stick of Artemi Panarin who stepped back and to his right before writing the game-winner in a 2-1 decision.
The goal came with 72 seconds left in the extra session.
Igor Shesterkin made 40 saves in the win.
“Well deserved by our goalie, for sure,” Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said. “He was incredible tonight. He obviously stole us a couple of points in here tonight. Campbell was really good, too. We didn’t have a lot of chances, but we had some Grade A’s, and he made some real good saves also, but our goalie was outstanding. Just his athleticism. He’s strong, he plays hard on every puck, he’s always square to the puck.”
Michael Bunting scored in the middle frame to tie the game at 1-1.
“[Shesterkin] was pretty spectacular all night. We didn’t have our best game, but sometimes you need your goalie to steal one for you, and he definitely did it tonight,” New York’s Jacob Trouba said. “We weren’t at our best, but we found a way to grind through it. We gave up way too many shots, way too many chances, but he was there so I give him a lot of credit.”
Zibanejad scored in the first period; the goal needed a video review as play had stopped after the puck crossed the goal line.
“I don’t think we played good enough for long enough today and Igor, if it’s not for him, I don’t even want to imagine what would have happened,” Zibanejad said. “But at the end of the day, we got the two points and we’re moving on. It was a good lesson for us.”
The Rangers were outshot, 17-2 in the second period.
“I mean, we won but we had a bad second period,” Gallant said. “We were a little sleepy in the second, obviously, and got dominated, but I thought our first was OK, our third was OK, our overtime was OK. But did we have a bad 25 minutes, yeah.”
Auton Matthews played his first game of the season.
“I thought my timing was all right,” Matthews said. “For the first game, I can definitely walk away happy with it. I got some good chances, some good looks and I think that’s all you can ask for. I felt pretty good. I thought the guys around me did a really good job of helping me get into the game early.”
Jack Campbell made 21 saves in the loss.
“Shesterkin played really well, it was a good challenge for sure,” Campbell said. “I thought we did a good job of making it tough on him. The boys played really well in front of me.”
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