Even on a night when their offense was nearly non-existent, the Rangers’ continued their recent winning ways.
And it was almost entirely because of Igor Shesterkin, who was not only perfect in regulation and overtime, but in the shootout of Saturday’s 1-0 win over the Blue Jackets at Madison Square Garden.
He stopped all three attempts by Columbus and the Rangers got a shootout goal from Vincent Trocheck, which was all they needed.
For a team with almost no margin for error if they want to get to the postseason thanks to their ugly play earlier in the season, Shesterkin’s play was crucial.
It opened another critical stretch with a matchup against the red-hot Blue Jackets, who entered having won six in a row to put themselves in the top wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The match was the first of a seven-game stretch in which the Rangers will play six games against teams ahead of them in the East.
“Obviously, it doesn’t take a lot to look and see where we’re at, where we need to go and who we need to go through,’’ head coach Peter Laviolette said before the game.
