Igor Shesterkin carries Rangers past rival Hurricanes with second straight shutout

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Rangers will go as far as Igor Shesterkin will take them.

Tuesday night’s 1-0 win over the Hurricanes was just the latest reminder of that fact as the star Russian netminder posted his second straight shutout with 28 saves to give the first-place Rangers a six-point cushion on Carolina in the Metropolitan Division standings.

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This was a hot Carolina team coming in. The Hurricanes had outscored their last three opponents 15-5.

Then they had to face Shesterkin and the Rangers and their offense went cold.

“To be honest, today was my mom’s birthday,” said Shesterkin, who backstopped the Blueshirts to their third win in a row. “So I couldn’t play a bad game tonight.”

Shesterkin gutted out a goaltending duel with Pytor Kochetkov, who gave up the Rangers’ lone goal off an Adam Fox shot that ricocheted in off ex-Ranger-turned-Hurricanes defenseman Brady Skjei in the final seconds of the first period.

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Otherwise, Kochetkov presented just as much of a challenge for the Rangers, who were denied at every turn for the insurance goal.

Especially in the third period, which became a track meet through the first minutes of the final frame.

The way Shesterkin has elevated his game the last month and a half, however, should put faith in the Rangers’ locker room that he can provide the difference in any matchup.

Now, the key will be to give the Vezina-winning goalie a little more goal support.

“Listen, goaltending, it can make or break you,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “We’re fortunate, you see [Jonathan Quick on Monday night] and Shesty in back-to-back games here, the goaltending has given us a chance to win every night. But it was everybody tonight, it was certainly Shesty, but it was everybody.”

The Rangers earned every bit of their second 1-0 victory of the season.

They not only matched the intensity the Hurricanes always seem to play with, but they played smart in a tight game where Carolina pulled its goalie for the extra skater in the final two minutes of regulation.

The teams traded momentum through the first two periods, but the Rangers were the only ones to strike.

After the visitors held the Hurricanes to five shots on goal in comparison to their 11 in the first period, the numbers were flip-flopped exactly in the middle frame.

The Rangers were hemmed in their zone for a good portion of the second period and Shesterkin had to bail his teammates out on more than one occasion as their exhaustion from the back-to-back slate began to take its toll.

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The 28-year-old netminder, who notched his third shutout and improved to 28-13-2 on the season, robbed new Hurricane Evgeni Kuznetsov twice from in tight.

It had the Blueshirts fans in attendance chanting ‘IG-OR!’ throughout PNC Arena.

“I think it’s easier for me,” Shesterkin said of low-scoring games. “Because you concentrate more on the puck than [when it’s] 4-0 or 5-0, you lose [concentration] and everybody loses [it] too. Then you give up s—ty goal.”

Shesterkin and the Rangers never lost focus in this one.

As long as their No. 1 goaltender is playing like he has, the playoffs can’t come soon enough for the Rangers.