Recap: Second Consecutive Shesterkin Shutout Leads Rangers in 5–0 Win Over Ottawa

With the importance of each possible pair of points only increasing, the Rangers kicked off a four game homestand with the Ottawa Senators. Not a proper “rival” team but when you consider the current standings mixed with the infamous “soft tampering” accusations, you have to imagine there was a little more at stake between these teams than there normally would be. As such, the Rangers played the game accordingly and completely steamrolled the Senators after a slow start. Despite two goals being waved off, they were able to secure a 5-0 win with goals from up and down the lineup.

1st Period: 

It was another low event start for the Rangers and Senators alike as neither side really generated much through the first ten minutes. Believe it or not, Matt Rempe had two of the best scoring chances for the Rangers to start as the fourth line was making an impact right from the jump. Aside from that and Sam Carrick losing his skate blade and having to make his way to the bench on one leg, there really wasn’t a ton of excitement in the early parts of this contest. 

Finally, with about two and a half to go in the opening period, another strong shift from the Rangers’ fourth line resulted in Sam Carrick finding the back of the net on a quick shot. Or so we thought. Ottawa decided to use their coaches' challenge and sure enough, Rempe crossed the blue line just before the puck did, therefore we had no goal. And back to square one. 

Just over a minute later, the Rangers would get themselves back on the scoreboard, this time for real. A nice pass from Artemi Panarin found Adam Fox at the opposite point. After letting a quick shot go, Alexis Lafrenière was right there at the doorstep to put home an easy rebound, 1-0 game. 

Not a bad period by any means but until the goals in the final minutes, it wasn’t much of an exciting one. Shots after twenty were 10-5 in the Rangers favor. They were out-chancing Ottawa significantly with high danger chances coming in a 5-1. 13 giveaways split as close to evenly as an odd number can be with the Rangers seeing the slight edge in face-off win percentage. 

2nd Period:

A much better start to the second as just under two minutes in, Arthur Kaliyev ended up with the puck on a weird angle low in the right face-off circle. Kaliyev did exactly what we’ve heard he can do, and that’s approach the play with a shoot first mentality. Merilainen had some trouble with it and the puck found the back of the net to extend the Rangers lead, 2-0. 

Just over three minutes later, it was Arthur Kaliyev again picking up the puck on the right wing side, walking right into the slot to let a shot go. A perfectly executed play by Kaliyev as the shot did take a redirect off the stick of Tyler Kleven but found its way past Merilainen to make it 3-0… Or so we thought yet again. 

The Senators decided to use yet another coaches’ challenge and sure enough, it was determined that Chris Kreider was just offside upon entering the zone. Four goals from the Rangers through 25 minutes of play but only two would count. This wouldn’t change the mind of Ottawa’s coaching staff however as they decided they saw enough from their young goaltender and replaced him with veteran Anton Forsberg. 

About a minute later, we saw the first penalty of the game on a truly egregious call by the officials. Will Borgen was assigned an interference penalty for Brady Tkachuk running into him and grabbing him by the head. How that was a penalty on Borgen is beyond me. Thankfully, the Senators had nothing to show for on the man advantage and the Rangers were able to kill it off with relative ease. 

With seven minutes to go in the period, the Rangers were back to the penalty kill as Filip Chytil was called for holding Tim Stutzle. The Senators did a better job of moving the puck around this time around but again, the Rangers were strong on the kill and kept without a shot on goal for the second power play in a row. 

As the team’s returned to even strength, Chytil had a great chance to extend the Rangers lead but was shut down by Forsberg. However, this would give the Rangers their first power play of the night as Chytil was tripped by Stutzle on the scoring chance. It was a sloppy start to the man advantage for the Rangers but once they got settled, they saw some quality chances. Alas, the top unit couldn’t find the back of the net despite being out there for the full two minutes. 

Dare I say, something that hasn’t really been said about this Rangers team in quite some time and that is that they were defending well? Shots at the end of the second were now 20-12 in the Rangers favor. They continued to hold the Senators to just one high danger chance and only six scoring chances total in a game that would have been 4-0 had it not been for all the offside challenges. 

3rd Period:

Just three and a half minutes in, Matt Rempe did a great job of reading the play in the defensive zone and intercepted a pass meant for the Senators defenseman at the point. After a give and go with Adam Edström, Rempe pulled off a beautiful little forehand-backhand move to sneak the shot past Forsberg to make it 3-0. 

About a minute or so later, Will Cuylle batted in his own rebound just a couple of miles above the crossbar resulting in the goal immediately being waved off for a high stick. 

And then with just under thirteen minutes to go, all hell broke loose. A chance for Ottawa resulted in Brady Tkachuk crashing hard into Igor Shesterkin which initially, looked like it lef the Rangers goaltender a bit shaken up. This naturally drew a crowd with the Rangers fourth line on the ice but really escalated when Shesterkin got involved and threw some punches with Tkachuk. Rempe among others, was right there to step in for their goaltender but Shesterkin was set on being involved. Rempe and Tkachuk ended up exchanging some punches with an official in between the two. 

Both teams were penalized but the Rangers came out of it all with a power play. After a minute and a half of nothing, Mike Amadio ran Igor Shesterkin as he was playing the puck behind the net which gave Ottawa an additional penalty, turning it into a 5-on-3 for New York. That would be huge for the Rangers as with nine seconds left on the 5-on-3, Artemi Panarin ripped a shot that beat Forsberg on the blocker side to make it a 4-0 game. 

As power play two took the ice, Will Cuylle collected the puck down low and once he got Forsberg to budge, he was quick to let the shot go to find the back of the net. 5-0 as the Rangers were starting to run away with this one. 

Not an important detail, but some deja vu in the third as Sam Carrick lost a skate blade in the offensive zone a second time in the third period. Things settled down significantly from there and with about three and a half to go in the game, Nikolas Matinpalo was called for slashing to send the Rangers back to the power play. They would come up empty handed but at that point, it didn't matter. The Rangers were in cruise control and would secure a much needed win against a team that's right there with them in the race for the Eastern Conference wildcard positions.

Igor Shesterkin picked up his third shutout of the season, his second in consecutive starts. That's fantastic news for the Rangers who will certainly need him to be at the top of his game as they continue to climb their way back into the playoff race. They'll be back at it on home ice Thursday Night for another big matchup with the Philadelphia Flyers.