Needing a victory, the New York Rangers saw an impressive performance from Igor Shesterkin on Friday, as the goalie made 41 saves to help his team snap a three-game losing streak with a 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars.
Vincent Trocheck contributed with a goal and an assist, while Reilly Smith and Chris Kreider also found the net for New York.
For the Stars, Roope Hintz scored, and Jake Oettinger made 27 saves, as the team suffered its second straight loss, wrapping up their homestand with a 3-3-0 record. Shesterkin, the Rangers’ leading goalie, had previously lost three of his last four games and was experiencing a broader slump. This win marked the first time since a 2-1 victory against the Ottawa Senators on November 1 that he allowed just one goal or fewer.
Prior to this, Shesterkin had given up 58 goals over 19 games, recording a 3.48 goals-against average, a .902 save percentage, and a 7-12-0 record.
This was also the fourth occasion this season that he reached 40 or more saves.
Shesterkin, along with the Rangers’ penalty-killing unit, thwarted all seven of the Stars’ power-play chances, making 21 saves while his team was short-handed. This marked the highest number of power-play opportunities the Stars had in a season and the most the Rangers allowed this year. Among those stops was a five-minute major against Matt Rempe, who had been recalled from Hartford earlier in the week, and also received a game misconduct for elbowing Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen with 12:47 left in the game. Shesterkin made nine saves during that power play alone.
Hintz opened the scoring for Dallas just under two minutes into the game with assists from Nils Lundkvist and Jason Robertson.
Smith equalized almost nine minutes later on a short-handed breakaway that originated when Thomas Harley’s stick failed to connect at the blue line in the Stars’ zone.
Trocheck then gave the Rangers the lead with 4:40 remaining in the first period, with assists from Adam Fox and Artemi Panarin, who returned after missing two games due to an upper-body injury.
Kreider sealed the scoring with an empty-net goal with 2:06 left, breaking a seven-game scoring drought.
