New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin made 29 saves to give the New York Rangers a 2-1 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.
Mark Stone scored the lone goal for Vegas (28-11-3). Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves to suffer his first loss since Nov. 30 (6-0 against Utah).
“We weren’t super, super sharp in the first two. We put some chances towards them on the third. It was a really good goalie. If he sees the puck, he’s going to make the most saves,” Stone said. “We did a great job getting traffic. Honestly, we just didn’t execute on our chances. We had some good looks that kind of bounced over the sticks and just couldn’t find one there at the end of the power play.”
Golden Knights’ offensive dry spell
The Golden Knights have gone 169:52 without a 5-on-5 goal.
Their last three goals have come via the power play (two) and a 6-on-5 empty netter.
“Offensively, we do have some guys that aren’t executing at the level they’re used to, right?” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “There’s a lot of low-to-high plays today that looked like something good was going to happen against man-to-man. They hop over a stick, and now we’re in the neutral zone, and, you know, they get off the hook. So there’s a little bit of that going on. Sometimes, that’s the time of the year. You go through lulls where things click for you. That was our October at home. Right now, we’re having to work real hard to score.”
Rare back-to-back loss
It was the first time since Nov. 20 that the Golden Knights have lost back-to-back games.
But overall, the Golden Knights have been steady over the past two and a half months. They’ve gone 21-8-2 since November.
“We have maybe one bad loss against Utah,” Golden Knights forward Tomáš Hertl said. “We just couldn’t find the net. It’s obviously tough, and you can’t score 5-on-5, but tomorrow is another game. We have to be ready because a lot of games coming up. We have to just put it behind us.”
Barbashev returns
Forward Ivan Barbashev returned after missing the last 10 games with an upper-body injury.
He had three shots on goal in 18:24 of ice time.
“It was great to get him back,” Stone said. “He’s missed a month and a bit of hockey. I’ve been there. You get your legs under you. He’ll be better tomorrow. When you get his physical game going, he makes plays; he gets lots of lots of chances. He’s gets to the net. He’s another kind of guy that’s gonna help us get out of the funk.”
Paul Delos Santos is the Las Vegas sports insider for Dice City Sports. Follow him on X at @PaulDelos_.
