Chris Kreider paved the way for a pleasant Rangers win, but when number one goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin was carried off the ice in the middle of the third period, there was no more good feeling.
Rangers, after a Kreider hat-trick after a lackluster first period, defeated Devils 6-1 on Thursday night at the Prudential Center, but lost Shesterkin due to what appeared to be an injury to his right leg. It was Rangers’ first victory over the Devils this season (after being mistreated in the previous two), but it came at a potentially high cost.
Shesterkin, who was constantly emerging as the Rangers goalkeeper, sprawled on the ice after making a save against Devils’ Damon Severson with 12:42 left in the game. While Shesterkin was being carried off the ice and into the locker room, he was unable to put any weight on his right leg.
Although an impressive number of Rangers fans contributed to the 1,800 crowd in Newark, the majority of the team seemed to have failed to show up. Except for Kreider, who scored his seventh, eighth and ninth goals (for a total of 10 points) in his last seven games to guarantee victory almost alone.
Kreider left Rangers on his back when center-back Mika Zibanejad fell to probably his lowest point of the season and stayed out for most of the second period. Zibanejad recorded only 3:59 of the ice time in the first period, and then it did not change until more than half of the intermediate picture had ended.
With Artemi Panarin still on indefinite leave and out of the lineup for the fifth consecutive game, Jacob Trouba taking care of a broken thumb and Zibanejad looking like a shell of himself, Kreider has been the backbone of the Rangers.
There was a reason why the Rangers boss signed the 29-year-old for a seven-year contract last February – for games like this.
Jack Hughes had Devils’ only tally of the night, his third goal (and fourth point) in three games against Rangers this season. The goal gave the Devils a 1-0 lead going into the second.
That was when Kreider started working to keep his streak alive, scoring consecutive goals with approximately 5 and a half minutes in the second. After Devils striker Kyle Palmieri went into the area to cut, Kreider hit the net and buried Ryan Strome’s beautiful feed for his sixth power-play goal of the season, and his fourth in the last six games.
His second count of the night came after he deflected Ryan Lindgren’s slap from Devils goalkeeper Mackenzie Blackwood at 1:57 pm. It seems that Kreider has started to settle in his house in front of the crease again.
Kreider completed the hat-trick 23 seconds into the third. Goals from Pavel Buchnevich, Brendan Smith and Alexis Lafreniere closed the victory.
Devils left exactly the way they had done in the first two games against Rangers, passing through the neutral zone and passing quickly. Hughes took the puck out of the post to set the tone, while the Blueshirts just chased the puck and skated on top of each other.
Hughes’ goal at 7:12 of the first was a microcosm of how the Rangers competed in the first. With no one in blue running back, Hughes wiped a disc that ricocheted off the back plates for the 1-0 lead.
In the 10:04 am clash, Devils defender Dmitry Kulikov hit the barrel with a rocket fired from the end.