Igor Shesterkin's 54 saves the difference for Rangers in raucous double-OT victory in Garden
Igor Shesterkin #31 of the New York Rangers makes a save during the second period against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game Two of the Second Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, May 7, 2024 in New York City. Credit: Jim McIsaac
“I-gor! I-gor! I-gor!”
It was the soundtrack of Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, and it was a sound that never gets old for the man who goes by that name.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling every time — every time,” Igor Shesterkin said. “I was almost crying.”
This was after the goaltender’s 54-save performance in a 4-3, double-overtime victory over the Hurricanes in Game 2 of the teams’ second-round playoff series.
The Rangers now lead the series 2-0, but they were not the better team on this night, and Shesterkin saved them again and again.
“Igor played an Igor-esque game,” said Vincent Trocheck, who scored the game-winner on a power play at 7:24 of the second extra period.
Trocheck called Shesterkin’s saves total “insane.” He became the first Rangers goalie with multiple playoff games of 50-plus saves. He recorded 79 in a triple-overtime loss to the Penguins in 2022.
“When he’s on like that, it’s tough to beat him,” Trocheck said. “It’s tough to beat our team whenever he’s making saves like he was tonight.”
Shesterkin admitted being tired when it was over, saying, “It was a pretty tough game.” But he also said, “I just know if your team scores, you get a lot of power right away, and MSG was electric tonight. So happy to win tonight.”
The ghost of goaltending stars past was in the building on Tuesday in the form of Henrik Lundqvist, who received the biggest cheer of the night among celebrities shown on the video board.
But for all Lundqvist did for the franchise, he last played in the 2019-20 season. Shesterkin’s Game 2 masterpiece was another sign that the transition from the Lundqvist era to his is complete.
“He’s done that as long as I’ve been here,” said captain Jacob Trouba, who arrived in ’19-20, the same season Shesterkin did. “It’s been talked about enough what he brings to the team — or maybe never enough.”
Trouba cited “the level he brings, how badly he wants to win, the commitment I think he has that not a lot of people see, in the gym, outside the rink, when he gets on the ice . . . It’s not a mistake that he’s as good as he is.”
On top of doing his job of stopping pucks, Shesterkin showed his feisty side.
After Andrei Svechnikov took him out behind the net with what was called a tripping penalty, Shesterkin skated nearly halfway across the ice to confront Svechnikov as other Rangers went after him.
Later, Shesterkin took offense to Svechnikov in front of his net and took a Billy Smith-style swipe at him with his goalie stick.
“It’s the playoffs,” Shesterkin said when asked about those incidents. “No friends in a game. I just told him, ‘Let’s play hockey and do not do these stupid penalties.’”
Said Trouba, “He’s intense. That’s what you want out of teammates and players. You want them to care, and he cares. He shows it and plays with some passion.”
Frederik Andersen made his share of big saves for the Hurricanes, too, but the edge in goal that most gave the Rangers entering this series is playing out.
“He was fantastic tonight,” coach Peter Laviolette said of Shesterkin. “Both goaltenders had to make big saves or the game would have gone in a different direction.”
Laviolette added, “I thought we got better as the game went on, and I think he got better as the game went on, too.”
Trocheck’s game-winner came after what appeared to be a borderline cross-checking penalty on Brady Skjei, under the double-overtime circumstances.
But it was another example of the drastic edge the Rangers have had in special teams, scoring regularly on power plays and keeping Carolina from doing so.
That is a dangerous thing to rely on, just as it is dangerous to rely on a goalie bailing a team out.
But for now, it’s all working perfectly. Shesterkin and the Rangers are 6-0 in the playoffs, and Carolina now must beat them four times in five games.
“We never give up, so we play ‘til the end,” Shesterkin said. “Everybody plays our game. So we deserved that win tonight.”
Perhaps, but one guy deserved it more than anyone else.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.