New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin, right, stops Calgary Flames forward Mikael Backlund during the third period in Calgary. The Rangers won 3-1 on Oct. 24, 2023.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Fuelled by a lethal power play, New York generated all of its offence in the second period on Tuesday night with Chris Kreider authoring the goal that gave the Rangers the lead for good.
Kreider’s game-winner that broke a 1-1 tie was his team-leading fifth goal of the season as New York connected on both of its first two power plays en route to a 3-1 NHL victory over the slumping Calgary Flames.
“It’s coming. We’re building some stuff, some stuff we want to work on,” said Kreider, about the club’s play with the extra man in which he has scored three of his goals.
“Each game presents a different challenge, different kill, different opportunities at different times.”
Alexis Lafreniere and Erik Gustafsson, who also had an assist, also scored for the Rangers (4-2-0), who won consecutive games for the first time. Filip Chytil chipped in with a pair of helpers.
Blake Coleman scored the lone goal for Calgary (2-4-1), which came 75 seconds into the game. The Flames have lost three in a row.
“You’re on the road, you’re dealing with some time changes and travel and that sort of thing, and I think the guys stuck with it,” said New York coach Peter Laviolette. “Every game can’t be an A-plus game. You want it to be, and if it’s not you try to fix it and correct it so it is an A game.”
After surrendering a goal on the second shot of the game, New York goaltender Igor Shesterkin shut the door the rest of the way. He finished the night with 23 stops to improve to 3-2-0.
“He was really good tonight,” said Laviolette. “We were defending too much at the end of the game and there were certainly saves that were important throughout the game, and especially in the third period there was a couple of real beauties.”
Jacob Markstrom made 17 saves for Calgary. His record falls to 1-3-1.
Down 1-0, Lafreniere tied it 1-1 at 7:38, neatly deflecting Gustafsson’s point shot out of mid-air. The goal came shortly after Elias Lindholm intercepted a pass but had the puck bounce off his stick and back to the Rangers.
“Just practices, try to get as many reps as we can and we try to move the puck quick and make plays for each other,” said Lafreniere about New York’s prowess at 5-on-4.
The go-ahead goal came at 14:09 when Kreider, camped at the side of the crease, redirected Artemi Panarin’s point shot over Markstrom’s shoulder.
“Just a really good play by Artie. Threatens the shot, freezes the goalie, puts it right on a tee for me,” Kreider said.
Gustafsson’s goal at 16:53 of the second extended the Rangers lead to 3-1.
The Flames have gone 1-4-1 since winning their season opener.
“I don’t want to use the word embarrassing, but that’s a home game that we needed to come out and win and we didn’t,” said Coleman. “I think a lot of guys are pissed off and I hope everybody handles it the right way and uses that as motivation.”
Next on the schedule for Calgary is the St. Louis Blues on Thursday before Calgary heads north to play the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday outdoors in the NHL Heritage Classic at Commonwealth Stadium.
“The only guys that are gonna get us out of this rut are the 20 guys that are in this room” said defenceman Mackenzie Weegar. “We’ve got the compete, we’ve got the effort in here, we’ve got the guys, we’re just in a bit of a slump.”
Calgary mounted a push halfway through the third period, but the Flames couldn’t solve Shesterkin. Shortly after he stuck out a pad to deny a dangerous shot from Nikita Zadorov, and then he slid across the crease to deny Jonathan Huberdeau on a one-timer.
“We gotta stick together, “said Flames captain Mikael Backlund. “You find out a lot about your group when things are tough and about you as individuals, too, when things aren’t going your way.
“We’ve got to roll up our sleeves here and next game is the biggest game of the year.”
The Rangers finished 2-for-5 with the extra man. Calgary entered the night with the league’s second-best penalty kill having killed off 21 of 22. The Flames went 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
Kadri slumping
Nazem Kadri was held off the scoresheet and through seven games, the 33-year-old has just one assist while being a team-worst minus-8. The Flames’ second-highest-paid player is in the second year of a seven-year, $49 million deal.
Line shuffles
Looking for a spark, Flames coach Ryan Huska changed up three of his four lines and all his D pairings. Among the shuffling was off-season acquisition Yegor Sharangovich moving from fourth line centre on to the top line with Lindholm and Huberdeau.
Ruzicka injured
Adam Ruzicka, who opened the game as Kadri’s left winger, was injured late in the first period when he was sent flying head and shoulders first into the sideboards on a heavy hit by Jimmy Vesey. Down on the ice for a couple minutes, he was favouring his arm/shoulder when he was helped off.
Up next
Rangers: Five-game road trip continues Thursday when they travel to Edmonton to take on the Oilers.
Flames: Play host to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.