COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sometimes, you just have to take care of business and move on.
Goals by Jimmy Vesey and Chris Kreider in the first period, and the first of the season by defenseman Niko Mikkola in the third, provided more than enough offense for the Rangers to dispatch the lowly Blue Jackets and give goaltender Igor Shesterkin his third shutout of the season and his 99th career win, 4-0, Saturday in Nationwide Arena.
Shesterkin made 20 saves and picked up his 37th win, which ties former Ranger Alexandar Georgiev of Colorado for second place in the NHL.
The final road game of the season for the Rangers saw the return of Patrick Kane to the lineup after he missed two games with a lower-body injury. Kane (who had an assist on the Rangers' third goal) played on the top line with Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. They looked comfortable together, creating a number of scoring chances, including the one that led to Kreider whacking in a loose puck in front of the net for his 36th goal of the season at 11:49 of the first.
That made it 2-0, after Barclay Goodrow had stripped Columbus rookie forward Joona Luoto of the puck just inside the Columbus blue line and passed to Tyler Motte, who passed to Vesey, who scored his 11th goal at 10:08 to open the scoring. Goodrow earned an assist on the goal, the 100th of his career.
Mikkola initially was given a five-minute major penalty for hitting Columbus forward Eric Robinson high, near the Rangers’ blue line with 1:23 remaining in the second period, but upon video review, the officials determined that the hit by Mikkola was clean, and not a penalty.
Then, at 5:00 of the third period, Mikkola drove to the back post and tapped in a feed from Zibanejad for his fifth career goal.
The Rangers completed the road trip 1-0-1, and return home for the final two games of the season, Monday against Buffalo and Thursday against Toronto.
