The Rangers’ 50th game of the season was played in front of a COVID-restricted 50% capacity crowd at Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday night.
It was also the 50th victory in 79 career games for Igor Shesterkin as the Rangers beat the Senators, 2-1.
Shesterkin didn’t have to make 50 saves. Twenty-nine were quite enough as the Rangers won in their first game in Canada since before Thanksgiving.
Shesterkin was helped by key third-period blocks by Mika Zibanejad and Ryan Strome as the Rangers protected a one-goal lead for the entire period.
The goalie only faced one power play, midway through the third, and Ottawa didn’t score on five shots on goal (which shouldn’t be a shock since the Senators are 1-for-23 and 3-for-42 on the power play of late).
Shesterkin almost gave himself some breathing room when he shot one down the ice at the Senators’ empty net with 1:15 left. It looked good nearly all the way until it veered just left.
Artemi Panarin gave the Rangers their first lead in three games when he scored on a power play slap shot at 9:14 of the second period to make it 2-1.
Panarin, who assisted on the Rangers’ first goal, drew the first penalty of the game when he was hooked by Nikita Zaitsev.
A few minutes earlier, Panarin had been stopped by Ottawa goalie Filip Gustavsson on a clean chance. Panarin went back to the bench and rewatched the play on a tablet to get an idea of where to shoot the puck next time. It must have worked.
The Rangers fell behind less than five minutes into the game when an offensive zone turnover led to Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle ripping one over the right arm of Shesterkin at 4:52.
Strome tied it at 7:27 on a rebound of a Braden Schneider shot. It was Strome’s 10th goal of the season and first in 10 games. It was the fourth assist in the last seven games for the 20-year-old Schneider.
"We definitely need that," coach Gerard Gallant said before the game of getting contributions from the whole roster. "I mean, we have our superstar hockey players out there that carry our team a lot of nights and are a big part of our group. But when we talk about winning, it's about a team effort and different guys got to do it different nights. Everybody’s got to contribute if you're going to have success in this league."
The Rangers hadn’t played a road game since Jan. 27, hadn’t played in Canada since Nov. 18, and hadn’t played at Ottawa since Oct. 23.
"We've been a good road team all year long," Gallant said. "The guys come on the road, you get to stay in a hotel last night and you get focused today. So I think the guys are ready."
In the Oct. 23 game, the Rangers came back from 2-0 down with six minutes left in the third period and won in regulation, 3-2.
Gallant said he didn’t want to have do that again.
"It's been quite a while since we've been here, but we want to play a 60-minute game," he said. "Come out from the drop of the puck and continue to do that. But we've had some trouble in the first period. We’ve got to play better in the first. But as long as you win the game, that's the bottom line."
The Senators were in the second game of a back-to-back and played their sixth game in nine days because of COVID postponements.
"Obviously, this team's played a lot of games," Gallant said. "They had a lot of games to make up. So they've had a busy, busy schedule, but it doesn't change what we do."
Defenseman Patrik Nemeth, who had been out since Jan. 22 and was placed on injured reserve on Thursday for what the Rangers called "a personal matter," returned to the lineup. Rookie Zac Jones was scratched.
