Igor Shesterkin returned from injured reserve after lacking 4 video games with an upper-body harm and gave the Rangers a strong efficiency in a 3-2 extra time win over the Devils on Thursday evening at Madison Sq. Backyard.
Shesterkin made 21 saves — together with 11 within the first interval — and allowed the Rangers’ offense sufficient time to win the sport in OT.
“[Shesterkin] was back and played well,” head coach Peter Laviolette stated. “I thought the guys in front of him played really well, also.”
The goalie hadn’t performed since Dec. 30, when he suffered the harm in opposition to the Panthers.
The Rangers, then within the midst of a four-game dropping streak, received two of the 4 contests in Shesterkin’s absence however will want their star goaltender to make one thing of their season.
Additionally they have to get higher outcomes when he’s on the ice, which they did Thursday.
He entered 11-15-1 with a 3.10 goals-against common and .906 save share in 27 video games this season.
He was changed by backup Jonathan Fast for 3 video games, in addition to one by Louis Domingue, who was returned to Hartford to make room for Shesterkin.
The harm to Shesterkin got here lower than a month after he signed an eight-year, $92 million extension with the Rangers to develop into the highest-paid goaltender in NHL historical past.
“It was nice to see him again,” Artemi Panarin stated. “It gave us confidence.”
Matt Rempe returned from his eight-game suspension that was levied by the NHL after his crushing hit on Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen on Dec. 20.
Rempe had 7:47 minutes of ice time.
Laviolette referred to as them “good minutes. He tried to play physical.”
It’s going to be a problem for Rempe, who has been suspended twice by the league.
His return additionally got here in opposition to a Devils workforce with whom Rempe has important historical past.
He earned his first suspension final season with a excessive elbow on Jonas Siegenthaler and was additionally ejected from a sport versus New Jersey in April when he helped begin a brawl in the course of the opening faceoff of a sport at MSG.
Thursday was simply Rempe’s sixth sport of the season for the Rangers and he didn’t choose up a penalty.
Arthur Kaliyev, claimed off waivers by the Rangers on Monday, made his debut with the workforce Thursday and performed 8:31.
“It was good to get him in there,” Laviolette stated of the 23-year-old. “He’s been out a long time with injuries and it will take a minute for him to get up to speed. He can skate and move the puck. It was a good day one for him.”
Kaliyev, who had 35 profession objectives over components of 4 seasons with the Kings, spent a part of his childhood in Staten Island and attended Rangers video games at MSG.
He performed simply 5 video games with Los Angeles’ AHL affiliate in Ontario after getting back from a damaged clavicle suffered in the course of the preseason earlier than he was positioned on waivers.
He was claimed after Chris Kreider was positioned on the IR with an upper-body harm, however Kaliyev ended up taking Filip Chytil’s spot within the lineup.
Chytil left Tuesday’s loss with an upper-body harm and skated previous to Thursday’s skate. The actual fact he was on the ice was “progression,” in accordance with Laviolette.
The coach added there stays no timetable for Chytil’s return to motion, however “that he was out on the ice is a good thing.”
Jimmy Vesey was a wholesome scratch.
