Vintage Shesterkin Helps Rangers Beat Sabres

Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images
Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images

It has been an interesting season for New York Rangers All-Star goaltender Igor Shesterkin.

He has close to 30 wins, has performed well on the road this season, and was named to his first All-Star game. On the other hand, both his goals-against average and save percentage have taken a big hit this season, and there have been plenty of games where he has not played the way he can.

On Saturday, March 11th, however, the Rangers and their fans saw a familiar goaltender in their net who did precisely what he did last season: stealing a hockey game. It was Shesterkin who played one of his best games of the season in helping his team beat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 in overtime in Buffalo on a goal by Artemi Panarin.

Shesterkin was masterful in this game. He stopped 32 of 33 shots and helped his team win a game they could have easily lost.

The Sabres took it to the Rangers for most of this hockey game. They generated a lot of zone time, created a lot of traffic in front of Shesterkin, and obviously put a lot of pucks on the net.

Shesterkin was at his very best, though. He did a great job of controlling his rebounds, made several great side-to-side saves, and, more importantly, came up with the big saves when his team needed them the most.

His body language between the pipes was also great about Shesterkin in this game. He came out of his crease and challenged shooters, he put himself in a good position to stop second and third opportunities when they were there, and he looked like a very confident goaltender.

It was also nice to see Shesterkin get his goals against down. Even when the team was winning many games, there were stretches where he allowed at least three goals.

That was not the case on Saturday evening in Buffalo. On this night, it was vintage Shesterkin, and for the Rangers, that can only be a good thing moving forward.

In this week's episode we discuss NYR's playoff hopes, Quick's extension, Kreider, etc.How to support us and our sponsors:Columbia Sports ApparelESPN+ SubscriptionFanaticsDraft Kings – CODE ITRThanks for listening! Please rate and review our show on your favorite listening platform. Check out our partner's website at www.insidetherink.com for all your latest hockey news.
  1. 68 Down & We Needed This 1
  2. Dead at the Deadline
  3. Somebody Kaliyev Me Please
  4. 4 Nations Break
  5. Too Good to Tank, Too Bad to Rank

Discover more from Inside The Rink

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Patrick Hoffman

Patrick covers the NHL for Inside The Rink. He has previously covered the league for The Ultimate Hockey Fan Cave, WTP Sports, Sportsnet.ca, Kukla’s Korner, Spector’s Hockey, NHL Network Radio blog, TheHockeyNews.com, The Fourth Period, Stan Fischler’s “The Fischler Report”, as well as a slew of others.

Leave a Reply

Adam Proteau

Catching up With Adam Proteau of The Hockey News

With the trade deadline behind us and teams pushing toward the Stanley Cup playoffs, I figured now was as good a time as ever to conduct an email interview with the great Adam Proteau of The Hockey News. Adam was kind enough to take time out of his busy writing schedule to give us his […]

Read More
Todd McLellan behind the bench

March Contiues to Be a Month That Sinks the Detroit Red Wings Playoff Hopes

March has been the part of the NHL schedule that has caused the Detroit Red Wings the most trouble in the past three seasons. In two of these three seasons, the Red Wings were led by former head coach Derek Lalonde. The Red Wings had a record of 3-11 in March of 2024 under Lalonde. […]

Read More
New Jersey Devils defenseman Luke Hughes celebrates a first-period goal against the Minnesota Wild.

New Jersey Devils Take Down Wild in a Shootout to Sweep the Season Series

The New Jersey Devils defeated the Minnesota Wild 3-2 in a shootout on Monday night at the Prudential Center, sweeping the home-and-home season series between the two. Looking to end a three-game winless streak at home, the Devils put together another 60-plus minute effort that earned them a resilient and well-deserved win over a team […]

Read More