Rangers' Igor Shesterkin makes 40 saves in win over Senators

It doesn’t seem sustainable for the Rangers to keep playing like this, giving up all these shots, all these scoring and high-danger chances, and hoping Igor Shesterkin can keep bailing them out time and time again.

But three nights after a 41-save effort by Shesterkin in Washington wasn’t enough to keep them from suffering an ugly loss, here were the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, running back the same formula against the Ottawa Senators: the one in which they rely on their all-world goalie to be superhuman again and steal a victory for them.

This time he did it, making 40 saves to stymie the Senators and help the Rangers hang on for a 2-1 victory, one they really didn’t deserve.

“I’m running out of things to say,’’ defenseman K’Andre Miller said. “Just spectacular. I mean, everybody’s sitting there on the bench just praying that somehow he makes another one of those saves. And he just keeps doing it.’’

Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said, “He was fantastic tonight.”

According to the analytics website Natural Stat Trick, the Senators had 88 shot attempts to the Rangers’ 34, 37 scoring chances to the Rangers’ 14, and 12 high-danger chances to the Rangers’ five.

“It was an important two points for us,’’ Shesterkin said. “So it doesn’t matter who played good, who played bad. We just need to stick together and . . . we need to play good and get two points every night.’’

Artemi Panarin’s goal at 3:03 of the first period and Alexis Lafreniere’s power-play goal at 2:56 of the third ended up being just enough against the Senators (5-5). Adam Gaudette’s goal at 12:28 of the third period made the Rangers — who were outshot 41-18 — sweat for the final few minutes.

The Rangers (7-2-1, 15 points) actually got off to a strong start, getting a couple of excellent scoring chances on the first two shifts and then taking the lead on Panarin’s seventh goal of the season.

Panarin, whose season-opening point streak ended at eight games on Tuesday night, scored when he used former Islander Travis Hamonic as a screen and whipped a quick wrist shot past goalie Linus Ullmark on the stick side.

Miller, who had a rough game in the 5-3 loss to Washington, had a bounce-back effort. His most noticeable play came in the first period when he fired a shot on a rush that was blocked, springing Ottawa on a three-on-one counterattack. But the 6-5 Miller raced back and used his long reach to poke the puck off Brady Tkachuk’s stick, short-circuiting the chance.

Miller, who was on the ice for 22 minutes, 29 seconds, tied fellow defenseman Ryan Lindgren with four blocked shots. He was a plus-1.

“I wanted to definitely come back after the previous game in Washington and dial in and make sure I was better,’’ Miller said. “So I just tried to get back to the basics and play simple.’’

In the second period, the Rangers started taking penalties. And with three power plays in the period (five in the game), Ottawa had most of the possession.

“I liked the first period,’’ Laviolette said. “I like the way we played. I thought we were on point there.

“The second period, I didn’t like it at all. I thought we stopped skating and just gave them too much. Chances went heavy in the other direction. And then the third period’s different. We killed some penalties [but we] still need to do better.’’

The Rangers, with Shesterkin playing the leading role, killed all five of Ottawa’s power plays. The Senators had the league’s second-best power play coming in, clicking at 42.9% (12-for-28).

“Well, Igor was good,’’ Laviolette said when asked about the penalty kill. “I thought some guys blocked some shots . . . so I thought we did OK. But there were breakdowns.’’

Notes & quotes: Forward Jonny Brodzinski replaced Matt Rempe as the only lineup change on Friday from the group that faced Washington . . . Defenseman Zac Jones was scratched for the second straight game and the fifth time in six games . . . After sitting out his 10th game Friday night, forward Jimmy Vesey is eligible to come off long-term injured reserve for the Rangers’ next game, Sunday afternoon at home against the Islanders.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.