Rangers beat Maple Leafs for third win in a row, led by Igor Shesterkin's 34 saves

TORONTO – When Igor Shesterkin plays like this, it is hard to see how the Rangers can do anything but give the goaltender whatever he wants in the negotiation for his next contract.

Shesterkin is reportedly asking for a long-term deal that would pay him an average of $12 million per year. On Saturday night, he showed why he would be worth every penny of that.

He was Superman for the Rangers in their 4-1 victory over the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena. His heroic, 34-save performance was by far the biggest reason they were able to pull out the win, their third in a row.

“I honestly don't even know how to explain it anymore; I don’t know English well enough to have that in my vocabulary,’’ said Mika Zibanejad, who had two assists, setting up both of linemate Chris Kreider’s goals. “We don't want to say that you're used it but, but he's such a big part of our team … I keep saying he gives us a chance to win every night. He obviously comes up with big saves when we really need them.

“But at the end of the day, he's an unbelievable goalie,’’ Zibanejad continued. “He’s probably the best goalie in the world, I would say.’’

Shesterkin stopped 17 of 18 shots in the third period with the Rangers clinging to a 2-1 lead before Kreider and Artemi Panarin scored empty-net goals to seal it. And it wasn’t the volume of saves that was so impressive, but the difficulty of so many of them. According to the analytics site Natural Stat Trick, the scoring chances were 47-29 in favor of Toronto – 20-8 in the third period.

Toronto sniper Auston Matthews, who had the Leafs’ only goal, had nine shots on goal, and William Nylander had eight. And that doesn’t include the clean breakaway he had in the first period where he shot wide.

“He made some big saves tonight,’’ coach Peter Laviolette said of Shesterkin. “Both goaltenders were good, but Igor was, I mean, there was a couple glove saves through the middle of the game that were pretty, pretty special. And then in the third period, there were some that popped out front, and some chances from some of their big guys. He played a brilliant third period.’’

The win was the Rangers’ fourth in five games (4-0-1) and it came against a Maple Leafs team that entered the game with a 3-1 record.

Alexis Lafreniere got things started for the Rangers with his third of the season at 11:44 of the first period when he collected a rebound, cut across the slot and whipped a shot past Anthony Stolarz (25 saves). Rookie defenseman Victor Mancini got his first NHL assist on the goal.

The Rangers made it 2-0 on a goal by Kreider at 9:08 of the second, on a delayed penalty, when he tapped in a feed from Zibanejad behind Stolarz, for his fourth goal of the season.

But the Maple Leafs kept generating scoring chances. Matthews was dangerous just about every time on the ice, as was Nylander. Shesterkin also made a windmill glove save on John Tavares during a second-period Leafs power play that was pretty spectacular.

Matthews finally got the Leafs on the board when he scored his second goal of the season, at 3:40 of the third period, cutting the Rangers’ lead to 2-1. But that’s all Shesterkin would allow.

Rempe returns. Matt Rempe re-entered the lineup after sitting out as a healthy scratch the previous two games and three of the previous four.

“It's fine,’’ Rempe said at the Rangers’ morning skate of not being in the lineup every game. “Not a big deal. Just learn, and work, and practice.’’

Rempe, the high-energy fan favorite, played 11 shifts, for a total of seven minutes, 37 seconds, and had two hits.

He was one of two lineup changes Laviolette made. The other was dressing veteran defenseman Chad Ruhwedel for the first time this season. Ruhwedel, a righthanded shooter, replaced Zac Jones, a lefthander, and that meant the Rangers had five righthanded shooters among their six defensemen. Ruhwedel played on the third pair, with Mancini, who is also a righthander. Mancini played on the left side.

Forward Jonny Brodzinski was the other healthy scratch… Zibanejad’s first assist was his 300th in the NHL. He and Reilly Smith both had assists on Kreider’s goals, meaning all three members of the line had two points in the game.

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.