COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Rangers have been dutiful in recent days, talking about how they appreciated their pretty record, but how they didn’t really deserve it, and how grateful they are to goaltender Igor Shesterkin for being the main reason they had a winning record in the first place.
And then Saturday, with 6:45 left in their game against the Blue Jackets, the Rangers got a major scare when Shesterkin, starting his 11th game of the season, got run over from behind, and was forced to leave the game.
Backup goaltender Alexandar Georgiev came in and the Rangers managed to hold on for a 5-3 victory, their second in a row, and second against the Blue Jackets this season. But now the questions will be all about whether Shesterkin is injured, and if so, what will happen to the Rangers while he is out of action.
Even though they were able to finish the win without Shesterkin, and even though their offense showed signs of life, with two goals each by Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider, and one by Jacob Trouba, the Rangers still needed their goalie to hold them in the game until the offense got untracked. And there’s not a lot of time until they play again. They face the Devils at the Garden Sunday night.
Shesterkin, who has been the main reason for the Rangers’ record to this point, was excellent again, though he didn’t necessarily have to "steal’’ this one for his team. Shesterkin made 28 saves as he improved his record to 7-2-2.
And while Rangers coach Gerard Gallant had said before the season that he did not like the idea of playing any goaltender in both games in a back-to-back scenario, he indicated Saturday after the morning skate that he might be willing to let Shesterkin play back-to-back games this time around, meaning Shesterkin might have been back in the net Sunday against the Devils had all gone well.
Meanwhile, when he spoke to reporters after practice on Thursday, Panarin acknowledged that he had had a sluggish start to the season, but said he was starting to feel better. And he said he needed to skate more, and "maybe I need to be more of a shooter.’’
That made sense, since he had no shots on goal in the two games before Saturday.
So on Saturday, against his old team, Panarin shot the puck, a lot. In the first two periods, he had five shots on goal, plus another that was blocked, and one that was wide. And, perhaps not coincidentally, he had two goals.
His first goal came on a shot that appeared headed wide of a wide open net, before it was knocked in by the stick of Columbus goaltender Elvis Merzlikins at 17:29 of the first period. That goal tied the score 1-1 after Columbus had scored first on a power-play goal by Jakub Voracek at 8:59.
Panarin’s second goal came in the middle of a three-goal run in a 1:03 span in the second period that gave the Rangers control of the game. After Eric Robinson’s goal at 6:56 of the second gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead, Kreider’s first goal, at 7:39, re-tied it at 2-2. Then Panarin scored to give the Rangers their first lead, taking a feed from Ryan Strome in the slot and whipping a wrist shot up over Merzlikins’ stickhand shoulder at 8:15. Twenty-seven seconds later, Jacob Trouba banged in a pass from Barclay Goodrow to make it 4-2.
After that, the Rangers were able to cruise. Kreider’s second goal, a power-play back door tap-in of Mika Zibanejad’s pass 52 seconds into the third period, made it 5-2 and the Rangers could relax. But it should be noted that they might never have had the chance to stay in the game had it not been for another dazzling performance by Shesterkin.
