Goaltender Igor Shesterkin stopped 23 shots and scored an empty-net goal to lead the New York Rangers to a 5-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday at Madison Square Garden.
New York grabbed early control in the opening period. Mika Zibanejad put the Rangers ahead 1-0 on the power play at 5:34 with a wrist shot, assisted by Pavel Dorofeyev and Adam Fox. Dorofeyev then doubled the lead at 10:51 with a snap shot off a setup from Oliver Bjorkstrand.
The Rangers extended their advantage early in the second period when Eeli Tolvanen scored on a wrist shot at 1:40, assisted by Noah Laba. Nikita Kucherov got the Lightning on the board at 7:59, beating Shesterkin with a backhand shot off assists from Ilya Mikheyev and Brayden Point. Gabe Perreault restored the three-goal cushion at 16:01 with a tip-in goal set up by Fox and Zibanejad, making it 4-1. Shesterkin finished the scoring at 17:26 of the third period with an unassisted wrist shot into an empty net.
Shesterkin earned the victory with 23 saves on 24 shots, while New York's penalty kill negated all seven Lightning power plays. At the other end, Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 20 of 24 shots in the loss for Tampa Bay, which converted none of its seven advantages on the man advantage and allowed one goal on two penalty kills.
The victory moved the Rangers to 1-1-0 on the season, while the Lightning dropped to 0-1-0 in their regular-season opener.
The Rangers next host the Anaheim Ducks on Monday, October 19. The Lightning visit the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday, October 20.
