Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves and Conor Sheary and J.T. Miller each scored a goal in the first period, fueling the host New York Rangers to a 4-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.
Shesterkin also got the better of an impromptu fight against Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom in the third period.
Jaroslav Chmelar tallied in the second period and Mika Zibanejad scored in the third for the Rangers (31-35-9, 71 points), who have won three in a row following a season-high six-game losing streak. The victory also provided a slight measure of revenge after New York dropped a pair of 6-3 decisions to New Jersey earlier this month.
Defenseman Adam Fox notched two assists for his third multi-point performance during a four-game point streak.
New Jersey’s Connor Brown scored a power-play goal early in the second period and Nico Hischier notched an assist to extend his point streak to five games.
Markstrom turned aside 19 shots for the Devils (38-34-2, 78 points), who have lost two of their last three games after winning nine of their previous 12.
The Rangers scored the game’s opening goal on their first shot of the night at 8:14 of the first period.
Tye Kartye’s wrist shot from just inside the blue line was deflected home by Sheary at the inner hashmarks of the right circle. Sheary’s goal was his sixth of the season and fifth in his last 12 games.
Stationed just inside the goal line on the power play, Alexis Lafreniere went to his knee to deliver a slick centering feed that Miller converted from the doorstep to give New York a 2-0 lead with 6:21 remaining in the first period.
Brown cleaned up a loose puck to halve the deficit 51 seconds into the second before New York regained its two-goal advantage at 11:12 of the period. Markstrom failed to control a rebound, and Chmelar tapped home the loose puck for his third goal of the season.
Zibanejad converted a diagonal feed from Gabe Perreault to cap the scoring 3:49 into the third period.
