Chris Kreider paved the way for a feel-good Rangers victory, but when No. 1 goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin was taken off the ice in the middle of the third period, there were no more good feelings.
Fueled by a hat-trick from Kreider after a lackluster first period, the Rangers beat the Devils 6-1 at Prudential Center on Thursday night, but lost Shesterkin to what head coach David Quinn described as a “lower body injury”.
It was the Rangers’ first win over the Devils this season (after being mistreated in the previous two games), but a gloomy cloud came over with Shesterkin’s early departure.
‘We will know a lot more [Friday] in the morning, ”Quinn said of the rookie just less. “So that’s kind of the status now.”
Shesterkin, who was steadily emerging as the goalkeeper of the Rangers, was sprawled on the ice after a save against Damon Severson from the Devils with 12:42 remaining. When Shesterkin was carried into the locker room, he could not put any weight on his right leg.
“That hurts,” Kreider said when he saw Shesterkin go down. ‘Especially the way Igor played. So hopefully it is neither too serious nor too long. “
While an impressive number of Rangers fans were part of the 1,800 spectators at Newark, a majority of the team didn’t seem to show up to start the game.
Shesterkin, who ended the night with 32 saves out of 33 shots, kept the Rangers alive through a hopeless initial period. And Kreider has scored his seventh, eighth and ninth goals (for a total of 10 points) in his past seven games to almost single-handedly secure victory.
Kreider put the Rangers on his back as top line Mika Zibanejad fell to his lowest point of the season and spent most of the second half on the bench. Zibanejad recorded only 3:59 Ice Age in the first period, then only took a shift after more than half of the middle frame had passed.
With Artemi Panarin still on indefinite leave and out of lineup for a fifth straight game, Jacob Trouba with a broken thumb and Zibanejad looking like a shell of his own, Kreider was the backbone of the Rangers.
“It’s huge,” said Quinn of Kreider’s recent contributions. “He’s been around a lot of guys with that kind of experience and for him to deliver as he’s been, it’s definitely a long way for us to have the chance of success.”
There was a reason Rangers Brass signed the 29-year-old winger to a seven-year deal in February – for the leadership it knew it could bring to a team that desperately needed it.
Jack Hughes had the only one of the Devils of the evening, his third goal (and fourth point) in three games against the Rangers this season. The goal at 7:12 from the first was a microcosm of how the Rangers fought in the opening period.
With no one in blue coming back, Hughes cleared a puck that bounced off the backboards for the 1-0 lead.
That’s when Kreider got to work keeping his hot streak on fire, scoring back-to-back goals about 5 ½ minutes apart in the second. After Devil’s forward Kyle Palmieri went to 16 to chop, Kreider crashed the net and buried a slick feed from Ryan Strome for his sixth powerplay goal of the season, and his fourth in the last six games.
His second count of the evening came after he deflected a blow from Ryan Lindgren past Devil’s netminder Mackenzie Blackwood at 13:57. Kreider completed the hat-trick, his second in the last five games, 23 seconds in the third. Goals from Pavel Buchnevich, Brendan Smith and Alexis Lafreniere completed the victory.
“It’s no secret that we have a pretty young team, there are only a few guys with 500 or more games, which is very rare,” said Strome. “With a lot of young guys, it’s hard to stay positive, especially because of the ups and downs we’ve had on and off the ice. [Kreider has] was a great leader to us and he comes to the rink with the same attitude every day, which is very important in a company with so many highs and lows. “