NEW YORK — The Rangers came home Saturday night hoping to cool down one of the NHL’s hottest teams. The Columbus Blue Jackets entered the game with a seven-game winning streak that had climbed them back into the playoff conversation. The Rangers came into the contest with at least one point in six straight games themselves and earned a point in a seventh straight game the hard way.
The Rangers played to a scoreless regulation and overtime with Columbus with a shootout deciding things Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in a 1-0 Rangers win. After an Artemi Panarin miss in the shootout, Vincent Trocheck finally put a puck into one of the nets for the only made shot all night long.
“I thought as the game moved on, we got more looks and more chances,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “In overtime, we had chances. The third period we had chances.”
Igor Shesterkin was masterful in net and did not allow a goal in the shootout as Kent Johnson, Adam Fantilli and Kirill Marchenko all missed shootout attempts.
The single point allows Columbus to hold on to the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. The victory for the Rangers pushes them to within three points of Boston and Ottawa for the final playoff spot.
Taking a shot
Shots have been hard to come by against Columbus in recent games, who allowed only 19 shots on goal in a win over San Jose on Thursday. The Rangers experienced a similar fate on Saturday night with only four shots on goal in the first period to go along with two hits of the post. Fans at Madison Square Garden began to get restless with a Rangers power play yielded only one shot on goal.
“It was similar to the last game,” Laviolette said. “The first period was a little bit too much. We had some chances but I thought they outdid us a little bit. But then we addressed some things in between periods and I thought we were much tighter in the second and third periods.
The second period was much better for the Rangers, who outshot the Blue Jackets 10-6 in the middle period. Still, it was Columbus and their shot blocking ability that was frustrating the Rangers offensively. The Blue Jackets blocked 13 Rangers shot attempts in the first two periods to add to the selective shot selection.
The Rangers overtook the overall shot lead in the third period as they continued to pressure Columbus in their defensive zone. The teams traded shot advantages back and forth in the final minutes of regulation with Columbus holding a 24-22 advantage through regulation.
Adjusting on the fly
For the second straight game, in-game adjustments have proved to be crucial to the Rangers’ success. Much like during the win over Utah earlier in the week, the Rangers were successfully able to make tweaks that proved to be the difference on Saturday.
When asked about what has changed recently for the Rangers to be able to shift during the game, Laviolette said that the belief has changed in the locker room provided the recent success.
“There’s probably a little bit more belief in the way we are playing,” Laviolette said. “I think the players feel it and see it as well. It’s a different group as well. There’s a lot of different pieces in here right now. I think that took a minute.”
Sheskertin saves them all
The Blue Jackets came into the game with a 10-3-1 record across their previous 14 games and had at least four goals scored in nine of those contests. Shesterkin cooled the hot offense of Columbus with his best game in nearly three months. Shesterkin stopped all 24 shots he faced in regulation and three more in overtime. It was his first shutout since stopping all 31 saves in a win over Pittsburgh on October 9.
“When you play a game and you get 0-0 to overtime, you know he’s done his job,” Laviolette said. “He’s played really well for us and we need that. We’re in a position where we need to win games, win points. He had to be sharp tonight because we weren’t able to give him the run support.”
Perhaps the most impressive save of the night for Shesterkin was his last one of regulation. It came off a shot from Damon Severson in the final two minutes of regulation. Shesterkin shifted to his glove side and turned aside a shot at point blank range.
To cement the performance, Shesterkin turned aside all three shots he faced in the shootout to hold the Blue Jackets without a goal for the first time since a Dec. 28 shutout loss to Boston.
