PAIN AND GLORY
Shesterkin hurt as Blueshirts blank Sharks for 5th straight 'W'
Alexandar Georgiev is the third senior Ranger behind Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. The goaltender has been with the team since early February 2018 other than a few brief assignments to the AHL in order to get in some work after sitting for long stretches behind Henrik Lundqvist.
Georgiev is likely fighting to maintain his spot on the roster after a dreadful start to this season that followed a substandard 2020-21. Now, it appears he is going to get an extended opportunity to keep himself on the Rangers.
That’s because Georgiev appears to be in line for a series of starts — beginning with the match Saturday against the Blackhawks at the Garden — in the aftermath of the lower body injury (right knee; groin; hamstring?) Igor Shesterkin sustained 5:08 into the third period of the Rangers’ 1-0 victory over the Sharks on Friday night, that forced the No. 1 goalie to the room during the Rangers’ fifth straight victory.
Head coach Gerard Gallant said he was told by the training staff that the injury incurred by the Vezina frontrunner, Hart contender and the Rangers’ MVP — they’re the same person — was not as serious as it looked when Shesterkin needed help to leave the ice. But that’s what the Rangers said last year when Shesterkin suffered a groin injury during a game at the Devils.
“Day-to-day,” is what the team called it in that game’s immediate aftermath before it took a full three weeks of days until the Russian was able to return. So this presents a wait-and-see scenario regarding Shesterkin, for whom this is the fourth lower-body injury over his two plus-seasons in the NHL.
A long-term absence would obviously present a major challenge to the Rangers, who have won nine of their last 10 to boost their record to a remarkable 15-4-3. When Shesterkin exited the contest, he left with a gaudy 2.05 goals-against average and an even gaudier .937 save percentage. When Georgiev entered the match, he did so toting an ugly 4.08 GAA and an even uglier .858 save percentage that ranked 62nd of the 62 goaltenders who had played at least 250:00.
But Georgiev was outstanding in relief in this one, stopping all nine shots he faced to preserve the 1-0 lead his team had been protecting since Ryan Strome’s power play goal at 6:03 of the first period. The Bulgarian-born netminder was tested three times, once in close by Tomas Hertl, once from the slot by Logan Couture and once from the top through traffic by Brett Burns.
Georgiev, poised and technically sound, was up to the task. So were his teammates, who shut this one down against a team that packed the defensive-zone and forced the Rangers to play a patient structured game from start to finish. And they did.
“I thought it was a great response,” said Strome, who had a huge game at both ends of the ice. “Obviously, it’s not an easy spot for Georgie, either, and he did a good job. I liked the way we played in the third. As [Jacob Trouba] said to me as we were skating to salute the fans, ‘We locked it down pretty good.’
“You saw a lot of guys sacrifice their bodies, do the right things and get the win.”
The Rangers had scads of open ice in their 4-1 victory Wednesday over the Flyers. They left a lot, too, for the Flyers and needed Shesterkin’s brilliance to prevail. The game Friday was contested in tight areas throughout. The Rangers brought their discipline and sandpaper onto the ice to play the game that was in front of them, not the one they left behind.
“They played a lot differently than Philly played just going from one game to the next,” said Trouba, who turned in yet another stout performance in a series of them. “It was a much tighter game, they were more physical up the ice, they had a hard forecheck and dumped the puck in.
“You have to play what the game calls for, so you get put in those situations, you find a way to break the puck out, dump it in a lot, get up the ice and find a way to play our game. Different teams are going to present different challenges. Different, but it’s nice to win a game, 1-0.”
The Rangers created a fair number of Grade-A chances but Sharks netminder Adin Hill was outstanding. Still, the Rangers persevered. They hemmed the Sharks in their own zone for much of the final two minutes, getting strong shifts from the line of Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil and Julien Gauthier and from Kaapo Kakko’s hard work on the forecheck.
The Wolf Pack are undergoing a COVID-19 issue, so it is not clear whether either of the AHL club’s goalies, Keith Kinkaid and Adam Huska, would be available for a recall. Obviously there will be a backup on Saturday. A backup for Alexandar Georgiev.