Rangers edge Blue Jackets in shootout

Igor Shesterkin made 24 saves for the New York Rangers in a 2-1 shootout win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on Saturday.

Mika Zibanejad scored the only goal in regulation for the Rangers (10-7-2), who have won three in a row and four of their past five. Vincent Trocheck and J.T. Miller scored in the shootout.

“I thought we played a complete game all night long. That’s a good team we played against,” New York coach Mike Sullivan said. “They’ve got a lot of young talent, they’re fast, they have a real good transition game. They’re one of the best teams in the League off the rush, and they lead the League in scoring goals from defensemen. We knew that was going to be an important aspect of the game, and I thought for the most part we played on top of them most of the night. They had a little pushback, they got some life when they scored on their power play, but 5-on-5, I thought for the most part it was a pretty solid effort.”

New York improved to 9-1-1 on the road this season.

“I thought we did a good job of playing a good road game tonight," Miller said. "I thought we could have scored on a couple more looks. ... Everybody played just a solid road game tonight. Everybody took care of the puck. It was a kind of a greasy game, it wasn’t really super exciting I don’t think, but finding a way to win on the road against teams in your conference is huge.”

Dmitri Voronkov scored for the Blue Jackets (9-7-2), who had won two in a row and are 2-0-2 in their past four. Jet Greaves made 31 saves in his fourth straight start.

“That’s a very structured, strong hockey club with a lot of elements, great goaltending,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “It was a hard game to be in and to play and our guys played extremely well. We played hard, too. Consequently, it was a tied game with a couple power plays and that’s it. ... [There were] a lot of valuable lessons to be remembered from this game.”

Shesterkin kept it scoreless when he stopped Miles Wood on a penalty shot at 16:19 of the first period.

The Rangers then went ahead 1-0 while on a power play at 5:42 of the second period. Zibanejad received a pass along the goal line from Artemi Panarin, and although his initial stuff attempt was stopped at the left post, he was able to lift in his own rebound in the crease.

New York was outshooting Columbus 20-4 at the time of the goal.

“We didn’t have it,” Evason said. “We were playing good structurally, but we just didn’t have that extra pop, and maybe things have caught up to us a little bit with sickness and we were worn down a little bit, but love the way we grinded and got pucks out. Jet made some big saves when he had to, but everybody played a hard game tonight.”

Voronkov tied it 1-1 with his own power-play goal at 15:20 of the second, swatting in the rebound of Zach Werenski's shot at the top of the crease. Kirill Marchenko had the secondary assist on the play to extend his point streak to 11 games (three goals, 10 assists).

"It's a tough game today for both teams I think,” Marchenko said. “Kind of looked like a playoff game right now. It's a good experience for us."

Sullivan said he was pleased with his team's ability to have success in a low-scoring game.

“It’s just evidence we can win different ways,” Sullivan said. “A sign of a good team is when they have a comfort level playing in a one-goal game, a low-scoring game, and I believe we are developing that comfort level playing in a close one-goal, low-scoring game. When you can play in your own zone, defend, and you don’t have to hit the panic button, you just have a certain level of confidence that everybody is going to do their job, and I think we are developing that with the group.”

NOTES: Rangers defenseman Will Borgen did not play because of an upper-body injury. He is day to day. ... Panarin has seven points (two goals, five assists) in his past three games.