Shesterkin makes 29 saves, Rangers edge Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS -- Igor Shesterkin made 29 saves, and the New York Rangers defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

“‘Shesty’ made big saves when he had to,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said.

Vincent Trocheck and Adam Edstrom scored for New York (20-20-2), which has won back-to-back games and four of its past six.

“It's exactly the way we want to play: the way we did tonight,” Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren said. “We were hard defensively. That's something we really wanted to clean up: just playing more as a team defensively. It seems like we've been doing that better in the last couple of games. So that's the key to winning games, and that was a good one tonight for us.”

Mark Stone scored, while Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves for Vegas (28-11-3), which has lost back-to-back games.

“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.”

Stone gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 6:16 of the second period with a wraparound, power-play goal when Braden Schneider poked the puck off Stone’s stick and past Shesterkin.

“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.”

Trocheck tied the game 1-1 at 9:54 while on the power play. Mika Zibanejad's slap shot from the point hit Trocheck in the chest in front of the net, and Trocheck backhanded the loose puck into an open net.

“The power play responded after their power-play goal,” Laviolette said. “That was a big point inside of that game. Sitting 1-0, and we get our first power play, we have to capitalize. So that was a good point.”

Edstrom tipped in a Jonny Brodzinski shot at 5:57 of the third period to give the Rangers a 2-1 final.

“We kind of talked about crashing the net, so I was just trying to get in there,” Edstrom said. “Got a tip on the puck and it went in. … You pretty much practice tips from everywhere. That's one of those things I'll put some time and effort into, like the shots from the side. It was good to get one.”

NOTES: Artemi Panarin tallied his 340th assist with the Rangers and tied Steve Vickers for the ninth most in franchise history. The list is topped by Brian Leetch (741), Rod Gilbert (615), Jean Ratelle (481), Andy Bathgate (457), Walt Tkaczuk (451), Mark Messier (441), Ron Greschner (431) and James Patrick (363). … The Rangers earned their 32nd win decided by a one-goal margin dating back to 2023-24, which is tied with the Stars for the most among all teams over that span. … Zibanejad, who factored on the Rangers game-tying goal, skated to his 148th comeback win with the Rangers and tied Harry Howell (148) for the ninth most in franchise history.