Igor Shesterkin faced 40 shots Sunday and another 37 against the Islanders on Tuesday — his most across a two-game stretch since late November — while managing to earn consecutive wins, but that doesn’t mean the Rangers’ $92 million goaltender thinks he has just started to settle into a rhythm.
“I try to be always in a rhythm,” Shesterkin said after the Rangers secured a convincing 5-1 win against their rivals at UBS Arena.
Given the context of his up-and-down season, his pair of injuries and his recent rocky patch around the second upper-body absence, though, this latest stretch marks a promising one for Shesterkin.
In his previous six starts before the Blueshirts’ past two games, Shesterkin collected just a .817 save percentage and allowed 24 goals, and if the Rangers are going to continue their climb up the standings — they’re two points back of the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot — and into the playoffs, performances like his last two remain critical variables.
“I thought he was really good,” Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette said Tuesday. “I thought he made some big saves in the first. The second was probably his best period. He had to make some good ones off the rush. He had to make a couple in-zone, and I thought he played really good.”
Shesterkin allowed an early goal to Alexander Romanov, but he saved the final 31 shots. He turned aside a shot and a backhand rebound attempt by Bo Horvat during one second period rush, and Adam Boqvist generated a chance minutes later when he veered toward the net and flipped a shot from a tight angle that Shesterkin saved. He also lost a pair of defensemen in front of him, too, as K’Andre Miller (lower body) and Adam Fox (upper body) exited with injuries in the second and third periods, respectively.
But that didn’t prevent Shesterkin from recording the final victory to reach the 20-win threshold for a fourth consecutive season — and from taking another stride toward snapping his recent funk.
“It’s tough,” Shesterkin said of the Rangers losing two defensemen, “but I was focused on the game and other guys did a huge job in front of me.”
Throughout their careers, NHL opportunities have been fleeting for Jonny Brodzinski, Matt Rempe and Brennan Othmann.
They’ve struggled to log consistent time — for different reasons — and crack the main roster with the Rangers. It’s why, Brodzinski said, Tuesday night felt like they were back in AHL Hartford.
That fourth unit gave the Rangers an unexpected scoring burst.
Brodzinski deposited his two goals, Rempe added one and Othmann contributed what Laviolette described as “a lot of good little plays.”
It could provide just a one-game solution, especially with more lineup shuffling likely once Chris Kreider (upper-body injury) returns.
But for at least a 60-minute sample, the unit showed it could be productive if it remains intact.
“They did a good job of playing a simple game,” Laviolette said. “They put it behind, they got in on the forecheck, they were physical, they got pucks out to the D. They went to the net hard.”
The Rangers collected 47 hits against the Islanders, which marked their most in a game since recording 58 against the Penguins in March 2021, according to the team.
