NEW YORK – A nervous Madison Square Garden crowd held its collective breath as Jason Zucker approached Igor Shesterkin.
The outcome of Monday’s home opener hung in the balance, but the Rangers’ goalie never flinched.
He stuck out his right pad at the perfect time, calmly stopping the dramatic penalty shot to preserve a 2-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes.
“I feel it,” Shesterkin said of the pressure. “But on the penalty shot, it’s more like mind games. When he moved on right side, I was ready for a shot on the other side.”
The Garden erupted, as did the Rangers’ bench.
Peter Laviolette was spotted letting out an exuberant scream and fist pump, feeding off the howling crowd in his first MSG game as head coach of the home team.
“That save a pumps the building up,” he said. “If it goes the other way, then you’ve got to go back to work and the game is now back to even and you’ve got to find a way. There’s a chance for a team to catch momentum off of that, one way or the other.”
It was the Rangers in this case, who have seen Shesterkin come through for them time after time as he begins his fifth NHL season.
The save on Zucker with 4:48 remaining made him a perfect 4-for-4 in his career against penalty shots, adding to teammates’ confidence that the former Vezina Trophy winner will come through for them in those situations.
“You can almost say that I’d rather them have a penalty shot than a power play,” center Vincent Trocheck said. “Two minutes can create a lot of momentum, and when you have a guy like Shesty back there, he’s going to save a lot of those.”
After the opening-night excitement led to some initial sloppiness, the Rangers settled in to play a first period that looked a lot like what we saw in Thursday’s 5-1 season-opening win in Buffalo.
They took control as the period wore on, led by the top line of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Kaapo Kakko.
Kreider is off to another hot start, but all three of his goals in the first two games came on special teams. At five-on-five, that trio had yet to click in the way it looked like they might at the end of the preseason.
That changed to begin Monday’s contest, with their line producing five scoring chances in the first period without allowing any, according to Natural Stat Trick. For the game, they out-shot the Coyotes, 8-3, and produced the only 5v5 goal.
It culminated with a two-on-one rush in which Zibanejad used his signature hesitation leg lift before gliding a pass to Kreider for the easy finish.
“To me, it’s been a really good, positive line,” Laviolette said.
That made it four goals in three games for Kreider, who could tie the franchise record for longest season-opening goal streak with another in Thursday’s 7 p.m. home game against the Nashville Predators.
“He’s a noticeable, impactful player for us,” Laviolette said.
Second period filled with whistles
Kreider gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead heading into intermission, but they went cold in between periods.
They managed only one shot on goal at 5v5 in the second. Then again, they only allowed three.
That’s because much of the period was spent on special teams, with the Blueshirts racking up five penalties in the first 40 minutes of play to disrupt the flow of the game. At the five-minute mark, Clayton Keller scored a power-play goal to tie the score at 1-1.
“It was kind of a PK type feeling throughout that whole period,” captain Jacob Trouba said. “There wasn’t a ton of momentum for us or offense going.”
A few of those calls were questionable, particularly an unsportsmanlike penalty on Ryan Lindgren that immediately followed a fairly weak slashing whistle on Alexis Lafrenière. The crowd let the refs hear it after that sequence.
That gave the Coyotes a five-on-three opportunity with 1:19 left in the second period, and while it began with Nick Schmaltz hitting the post, it turned into a momentum-altering kill for the Rangers.
“I do think they can create a buzz,” Laviolette said of the PK. “There’s nothing that goes up on the scoreboard from a five-on-three kill, but I do think that everybody else feeds off.”
Vincent Trocheck comes through on PP
The Blueshirts avoided costly mistakes in the third, then took advantage of a cross-checking penalty on Arizona defenseman Matt Dumba.
A well-placed stick from Trocheck put them on top for good with 11:34 to play.
He got just enough of Artemi Panarin’s wrist shot to tip it past Coyotes goalie Connor Ingram, propelling New York to a strong finish and its second win in the first three games of the season.
The Rangers have now scored at least one power-play goal in each of those contests.
“Mika, (Panarin) and (Adam Fox) are moving a lot up top,” Trocheck said. “They’re creating a little bit of confusion for the PK. I think after that, it’s just simplicity. I think we’re shooting a lot more pucks, getting pucks back, playing a little bit more like a five-on-five (possession).”
Barclay Goodrow’s holding call setup Zucker’s penalty shot opportunity, but Shesterkin had his back. He finished with 26 saves, with none bigger than that one.
It was part of a gutsy overall effort in which the Rangers showed resilience and adaptability as they continue to be molded into Laviolette’s vision.
“It would be great if every game if you can get 50 shots and 100 attempts, but sometimes you’ve got to play the game that’s dealt,” the coach said. “What I liked is that we didn’t get frustrated about it. We didn’t try to over press. We didn’t try to go outside of our shoes. We just kept playing the game.”
Ryan Lindgren returns
It may have taken a Mack Truck to keep Lindgren off the ice for the home opener. Or, perhaps, a superhero.
“He’s Ironman,” Shesterkin quipped. “Robert Downey Jr. needs to be ready before he takes his job.”
The 25-year-old defenseman missed Saturday’s 5-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets with an upper-body injury and was considered a game-time decision heading into Monday, but when the Rangers emerged for warmups, no one was surprised to see No. 55 out there.
He took an early hit from Lawson Crouse behind the New York net that left him in obvious discomfort, but returned for his very next shift and played the entire game.
Laviolette, who noted that Lindgren has “something that he is dealing (with),” credited him with “61 minutes” after a postgame scrum that Lindgren found himself right in the middle of.
“He’s a warrior,” Trocheck said. “He’ll be playing through stuff, it feels like, all year. He gets in the battle every night, so he’s one of those guys can get you some momentum from just based off of his energy and his play.”
Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more of his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Postgame takeaways: Igor Shesterkin’s big save preserves Rangers’ win
