Chris Kreider scored his 36th goal of the season with 8:37 remaining in the third period, Igor Shesterkin made 32 saves and the New York Rangers beat the visiting New Jersey Devils 3-1 on Friday night.
The Rangers beat the Devils for the eighth straight time and improved to 7-2-1 in their past 10 games.
Kreider gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead by scoring in the third period for the second straight game. After getting the tiebreaking goal to beat St. Louis on Wednesday, Kreider struck again when he ripped a blistering one-timer from the top of the right circle past New Jersey goaltender Nico Daws.
Kreider scored after Shesterkin made four saves during a New Jersey power play and the Rangers’ Ryan Strome missed the net on a two-on-one.
Kreider also had the secondary assist on Mika Zibanejad’s 21st goal of the season. New York’s Filip Chytil scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the second.
Shesterkin improved to 7-1-1 in his past nine starts and made numerous big saves throughout the game. Notably, he stopped Nico Hischier on a breakaway with about 13 minutes left in the first period. Then, in the final three minutes of the second, Shesterkin stretched to make a glove save on P.K. Subban and a stick save on Ryan Graves while his helmet flew off.
Hischier scored for the Devils, who are 4-5-0 in their past nine following a seven-game skid.
Daws made 29 saves.
The Rangers opened the scoring with 8:49 remaining in the first period when Zibanejad converted a rebound. Jacob Trouba’s wrist shot from the right point went off Daws’ pads, but New Jersey defenseman Dougie Hamilton was unable to clear the puck, and Zibanejad swooped past the Devils’ Andreas Johnsson for the backhand tap-in from the left side of the crease.
After Zibanejad coughed up the puck in the neutral zone, Johnsson made a cross-ice pass to Hischier, who eluded defenseman Ryan Lindgren and put a wrist shot past Shesterkin’s glove to tie the game with 6:04 left in the first.
Chytil restored New York’s lead with 11:03 left in the second when he flicked a wrist shot from the right circle past Daws. It came moments after Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren intercepted a pass by Colton White in the neutral zone.
–Field Level Media
