Rangers fail brilliant Igor Shesterkin in brutal 2-1 loss to Flames

Try as he might to steal a win for the thoroughly outplayed New York Rangers, Igor Shesterkin couldn’t quite pull that miracle off on his own Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. Instead, the Rangers dropped a brutal 2-1 decision to the Calgary Flames, sabotaging a brilliant performance by their star goalie.

Make no mistake, the Rangers were pretty much run out of their own building in this one by a team that looked more desperate and engaged throughout. But Shesterkin bailed his teammates out time and again, finishing with 33 saves in a game the Rangers were outshot 35-13 and out-chanced in all situations 35-16 (a whopping 16-5 disparity in high-danger opportunities), per Natural Stat Trick.

“It was not a good showing,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said in the understatement of the season.

It was an embarrassing night for the Rangers, who didn’t look the part of a team fighting for its playoff life at all. When it was all said and done, the Rangers (33-30-6) dropped out of the second wild card in the Eastern Conference when the Montreal Canadiens rallied past the Ottawa Senators 6-3. Montreal leads New York by one point and has two games in hand.

And to think, things started so well for the Rangers when Artemi Panarin extended his point streak to 10 games with his 30th goal less than two minutes into the game.

The Flames (31-25-11) ended a three-game skid (0-2-1) despite managing just two goals against Shesterkin. Nazem Kadri had a goal and an assist in the victory, Matt Coronato scored the eventual game-winning goal late in the first period and Mackenzie Weegar assisted on each score. Backup goalie Dan Vladar made 12 saves and never faced more than five shots in any one period.

This came after the Flames were smoked 6-2 by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night.

“[The compete] was not there. There was nothing there,” Laviolette said. “They were faster than us, they got to the ice quicker than us, they were more ready. That’s the way the game played out.”

Calgary Flames 2 – New York Rangers 1

The Rangers did exactly what you’d want to do against the lowest-scoring team in the NHL that played the night before and was blown out in the opener of a four-game road trip — score a quick goal.

Panarin accomplished exactly that just 1:13 into the first period. After the Rangers collected the puck at center ice, Panarin skated in on left wing and had all kinds of time and space to pick his spot. That’s exactly what he did, firing a shot past Vladar’s glove for his 30th goal of the season.

It’s the third 30-goal season for Panarin with the Rangers and his fifth in the NHL. It was also his seventh goal in 10 games, and it gave the Rangers a quick 1-0 lead.

And that was the end of New York’s momentum. Slowly but surely, the Flames completely seized control of every aspect of the game, outside of goaltending. They played a stout, aggressive style with quick transitions and extended shifts in the Rangers’ end of the ice. So thorough was Calgary’s commitment to hard work and tight defensive play that New York committed 11 turnovers in the first period and was not credited with a single takeaway.

That’s hard to do.

Kadri tied the game at 10:22, slipping a rebound between Shesterkin’s pads after the Rangers goalie made a sharp down-low save on Weegar.

Calgary’s Jonathan Huberdeau, who was stoned point blank by Shesterkin at 8:14, wired a shot off the post at 13:06. But just when it appeared the Rangers might escape a poorly played first period tied 1-1, Matt Rempe caught Jake Bean in the jaw with his elbow and was assessed a two-minute penalty at 17:46.

Not long after, Coronato won an offensive zone face-off, skated between the circles, took a pass from Kadri, turned and fired a perfect shot over Shesterkin’s right pad and into the net to make it 2-1 at 18:03.

It must’ve been a special moment for the Long Island native, scoring his 17th goal of the season at The Garden.

Right before the period ended, J.T. Miller was sticked between the legs by Kevin Bahl and left the ice in obvious pain. The Rangers were furious that there was no penalty called, and Mika Zibanejad berated the officials after the buzzer sounded.

With a chance to regroup and come out with a better effort in the second period, the Rangers, out-shot 15-5 in the opening period, actually played worse. The Flames owned the puck, and the Rangers had hardly any zone time, unable to generate forecheck pressure before the visitors moved the puck quickly out of their end time and again. New York managed just three shots on goal in the second period.

But Shesterkin kept the Rangers in the game, stopping all 10 shots he faced in the period. The Flames, who struggle to score at the best of times, helped out their hosts by missing the net on two wide-open Grade-A chances. Martin Pospisil also had a breakaway out of the penalty box at 14:50 but never got a shot off because of a perfectly-timed poke check by Shesterkin.

Not only was Shesterkin making big-time saves, he engaged throughout the period in a running dialogue with Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson. During one media timeout, Shesterkin skated by the Flames bench and made like he was going to drop his blocker and glove, prepared (or not) to fight. When the period ended with the score still 2-1, Shesterkin and Andersson continued to yap at one another.

Despite that entertaining sideshow, a decent segment of the fans booed as the Rangers exited the ice.

There was more of the same to start the third period. The Rangers continued to look slow and the Flames remained the more engaged hungry team. Huberdeau had a pair of prime chances to score, notably a point-blank look denied by Shesterkin. Connor Zary and Morgan Frost had excellent opportunities thwarted as well.

Panarin and Chris Kreider finally teamed up for a Rangers rush chance 7:30 into the third period, but Vladar was perfectly positioned to make the save. The Flames goalie came up big a few minutes later to deny Sam Carrick from five feet out.

Shesterkin’s best save of the night came at 13:30 off a 2-on-1 down low when he did the splits to rob Huberdeau with his outstretched right pad.

The Rangers pulled Shesterkin for an extra attacker with under three minutes to play and kept the puck in the offensive zone for two minutes. But they managed only one shot on goal, and the Flames followed with an empty-net goal, though that was wiped off the board when video review showed the play to be offside.

Two face-offs later, the Flames finished things off and handed the Rangers a stunning loss on home ice in a game where it’d be hard to imagine how much more they could’ve been outplayed.

With no time to dwell on this terrible loss, the Rangers return to action Thursday when they host the Maple Leafs in the third of a four-game homestand.