Shesterkin’s first shutout as the Rangers blank Devils 3-0
By Steve Paulus
The New York Rangers improbable drive for a playoff spot continued with a 3-0 road win over the Devils. Unfortunately, they didn’t gain any ground on the Bruins who won in a shootout over the Sabres. Anytime you win 3-0 it has be classified as a good game, but it wasn’t as easy as the score indicated.
While you can’t say Shesterkin stole the win, he had to make more difficult saves than he should have, starting with a point blank save on a wide open Jesper Bratt in the first minute of the game. The goalie ended up making 27 saves in the game as he got his first shutout in his 34th start.
This was really two different games. The first period was wide open with numerous scoring chances for both teams. The Devils matched the Rangers attempt to attempt with the shot attempts after one period in New Jersey’s favor 17-16.
Coach David Quinn was not happy after that first period, but was even more concerned about the second period. The Devils outshot the Rangers 8-4 and had 21 shot attempts to the Rangers’ 10. There was no scoring in the second period, but a lot of credit goes to Shesterkin and the Rangers defense corps. Quinn described it as “a period we needed to find out way to get through it and we did. ”
He was much happier with the effort in the third period. No doubt it was helped by Artemi Panarin’s goal 7:50 in. Quinn said ” I thought we really made a commitment to playing winning hockey in the third period. We respected the game, respected our opponent.”
In an interesting note, Quinn said that after the second period Jacob Trouba ‘”took over” and addressed the team without the coaches present. There wasn’t much information about how that came about, but Quinn did say it was the first time this season he stayed out of the locker room between periods. It worked.
For the second time this season the Devils didn’t take a penalty so they didn’t have to face the Rangers’ power play. While the lack of special teams play allowed Quinn to evenly distribute ice time, considering that the Devils have the worst penalty kill in the NHL, the Rangers need to draw penalties in the next three games.
Here is a full video recap of the game.