Igor Shesterkin, Rangers shut out Penguins

Igor Shesterkin looked more like himself Thursday night. Smiling. Happy. Relaxed.

Winning will do that for a guy.

Shesterkin, the Rangers’ No. 1 goaltender and their best player for most of this season, broke out of a stretch of mediocre results when he turned in a vintage performance against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

He made 30 saves and earned his fourth shutout of the season in a 3-0 win that gave the Rangers a six-point lead over the Penguins in the battle for second place in the Metropolitan Division.

“Obviously, the last few games didn’t go as planned, and I was really trying to get my grasp on the game,’’ said Shesterkin, who had gone 4-4-1 in his previous nine starts. “But we’ll keep moving forward from here. I’ll work with the coaches and we’ll try to move on.’’

“People were worried about him; I wasn’t,’’ coach Gerard Gallant said. “He played really well tonight. He made some real key saves at key times, definitely.’’

The Rangers reduced their magic number to clinch a playoff spot to two points, meaning a Rangers win or Islanders loss will secure the Blueshirts’ first playoff berth since 2017.

Second-period goals by Frank Vatrano and Artemi Panarin and an empty-netter by Dryden Hunt provided the offense against the Penguins, who played without Sidney Crosby, out with a non-COVID illness. Shesterkin ended a personal two-game winless streak.

“He’s been the rock back there all year,’’ Vatrano said. “Since I’ve been here, he’s been great. I know he’s been great all year.’’

The Rangers won their third straight against the Penguins.

“We’ve played this team really well all year,’’ Gallant said. “All the games have been good hockey games . . . We won three times against them the last roughly two weeks and played good games. So that is another stepping-stone to keep our team going. And we want to win games. We want to get points and that’s the best we can do. We’ve got 10 games left and we’ll see what happens.’’

What could happen next is a battle for first place in the division. With the Penguins now in their rearview mirror, the Rangers (46-20-6) can turn their sights on the Metropolitan Division-leading Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina (46-17-8), which beat Buffalo on Thursday, holds a two-point lead over the Rangers and has a game in hand.

The Rangers and Hurricanes have two games remaining against each other, both at the Garden.

Shesterkin’s most memorable save came in the second period. Pittsburgh winger Jake Guentzel suddenly appeared all alone in the low slot and Evgeny Malkin found him from behind the net. Shesterkin aggressively charged off his goal line and snuffed Guentzel’s attempt.

The Rangers already were up 2-0 at that point on a goal 24 seconds into the second period by Vatrano — a backhander off a pass from Mika Zibanejad — and one at 9:47 by Panarin, also a backhander, after he took a pass from Andrew Copp and cut across the slot. Panarin’s goal was his 20th of the season and came in his 500th career game.

Hunt scored his fifth goal of the season into an empty net with 38 seconds remaining.

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.