TEMPE, Ariz. — Goalie Igor Shesterkin began in back-to-back video games for the primary time since his rookie season, starting with the Stars on Saturday afternoon and ending with the Coyotes on Sunday evening.
Beginning a goaltender in back-to-back contests isn’t one thing Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant and director of goaltending Benoit Allaire often do, however because it was a day recreation after which an evening recreation, the teaching employees thought Shesterkin would be capable of deal with the workload.
The Rangers flew out of Dallas Saturday evening and have been in a position to get to sleep at an inexpensive hour. Plus, the time change between Dallas and Arizona allowed the Rangers to realize two hours again.
“He had extra time,” Gallant mentioned earlier than Shesterkin posted 18 saves within the Rangers’ 3-2 win over the Coyotes. “We had a 1 o’clock recreation [against Dallas], 5 o’clock recreation [against Arizona], so it wasn’t actual busy of a recreation.”
The final time Shesterkin appeared in back-to-back video games was February 21 and 22 in 2020. He made 29 saves in opposition to the Hurricanes in Carolina after which made 46 stops in opposition to the Sharks the next evening at Madison Sq. Backyard. Each have been wins.
After that Feb. 22 contest, nonetheless, Shesterkin didn’t play once more till March 7 because of the accidents he sustained in a automobile accident. . The season was then suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Nice,” Gallant mentioned of what he noticed from Shesterkin on the second consecutive evening. “May do it once more sometime.”
Ryan Reaves drew again into the Rangers lineup in wake of Vitali Kravtsov’s most up-to-date upper-body damage. Gallant didn’t have a lot of an replace on Kravtsov, who exited Saturday’s matinee in opposition to the Stars after crashing exhausting into the boards.
“He’s going to get reevaluated [Monday],” the coach mentioned. “We’ll see. He was down on the ice for some time. He’s nice. He traveled with us, so we’ll see the place it goes.”
Sunday marked the sixth recreation the Russian winger has missed because of damage this season.
The Rangers performed of their third set of back-to-back video games, and their second pair on the street, this season. By way of these six video games, the Blueshirts are 3-3.
“It’s by no means simple,” Gallant mentioned. “That is our third one already in 10 video games. They discovered a means. I believed we performed an amazing first interval, we actually performed rather a lot of their zone. After which after that, they took it to us a bit of bit. However total, I believed we performed a very good, stable recreation from all people.”
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