NEW YORK _ It was, perhaps, not the debut Igor Shesterkin had dreamt. But it certainly showed what made him so impressive.
Sure, he heard the cheers when his name was announced, and Madison Square Garden is about as good a place as any to introduce yourself to the NHL. But the reality Tuesday was that this was the Avalanche, who came into the day leading the league at 3.6 goals per game, and this was the Rangers defense, which this season has proven itself to be inconveniently porous.
And there were glitches: turnovers, missed defensive assignments, and just the general jitters that come in a player's first NHL game. And through it all, Shesterkin kept his cool and came away with the win.
Shesterkin made 29 saves, including two pivotal ones when the Avalanche pulled their goalie with a little more than two minutes left, and Ryan Strome scored the go-ahead goal at 13:39 of the second period as the Rangers won, 5-3, to snap a three-game skid. Artemi Panarin added an empty-netter with 27 seconds left for his third point of the game.
Going into Tuesday, the Rangers had allowed 3.2 goals per game, among the worst in the NHL, and had allowed 25 goals in the previous six games. They also came into the game seventh in the Metropolitan Division.
And at first, this game looked like more of the same. The Avalanche wasted little time living up to their name, battering the Rangers with that bruising offense. Samuel Girard's shot on net went past Adam Fox and deflected off J.T. Compher's stick and beat Shesterkin for the Avalanche's first goal of the game, just 4:44 into play. A little less than two minutes later, Nathan MacKinnon got in on the rookie hazing. This time, the puck got by Fox and skittered to MacKinnon, all alone on the breakaway. The center put the puck between the goalie's legs, making it 2-0.
But as it turned out, the Rangers weren't so much laying down on the Avalanche as giving them a needed head start.
They first got on the board at 8:57, when Strome's shot was tapped in by Chris Kreider in front of the net. It was Kreider's 14th point in as many games. Next, Mike Zibanejad collected Tony DeAngelo's centering pass and chipped it over Phillip Grubauer's right shoulder to tie it at 15:23 of the first. At 8:05 of the second period, Brady Skjei got into the action: burying a booming slap shot from the point to give the Rangers their first lead of the game.
The Avalanche got back to basics shortly after that, as Compher again victimized Shesterkin. That, though, was not so much the rookie's fault as it was the fault of the Rangers' defense, which left one of the Avalanche's best scorers all alone beside their brand new goaltender Andre Burakovsky fed to Compher, who tipped it in to tie it again at 11:32.
Strome continued the goal flurry two minutes later, when he scored off a draw, to put the Rangers back up for good
Shesterkin, 24, is the heir apparent to the throne that Henrik Lundqvist built. He was nothing short of untouchable in the AHL. He was 15-4-3 in 23 games, and his 1.93 goals-against average was the best in the league. His .932 save percentage was second. He's been so good, coach David Quinn said, that he's given the Rangers little choice in the matter, even if having three goalies is a bit of a cumbersome prospect. Tuesday, Alexandar Georgiev was the healthy scratch, while Lundqvist backed up Shesterkin.
