NY Rangers beat Dallas Stars as Igor Shesterkin dazzles with 41 saves

On By Littum

DALLAS – Igor Shesterkin stopped 41 shots, including 23 on seven successful penalty kills, and the struggling New York Rangers beat the Dallas Stars 3-1 on Friday night to end a three-game losing streak.

The Rangers also scored on their penalty kick, Reilly Smith’s short-handed goal tying the game midway through the first period. Vincent Trocheck scored the tiebreaking goal and Chris Kreider added an empty netter late in the third period.

Roope Hintz scored for the Stars, who completed a season-high six-game homestand at 3-3-0. Jake Oettinger stopped 27 shots and made his eighth straight start.

New York won for the fourth time in 18 games after allowing the first goal.

Eight of Shesterkin’s saves came during a five-minute elbowing penalty against Matt Rempe midway through the third period.

Hintz has four goals in the past six games and a team-high 16 this season.

Each team had a goal disallowed during the first 1:15 for offside.

Takeaways

Rangers: Artemi Panarin, who leads the team in goals and points, returned after missing two games with an upper-body injury and assisted on Trocheck’s goal. Rempe, who was fouled, drew all three Dallas penalties.

Stars: They ranked 31st at home and fell to 10.3%

Key moment

Smith took the puck from Thomas Harley, the lone defenseman on Dallas’ power play, near the Rangers’ blue line and broke in to tie the game after the Rangers fell behind early.

Key state

A matchup of the second-best penalty kill kills both home and away without a goal in 23 combined powerplay minutes.

Next

The Rangers host Carolina on Sunday and the Stars visit Utah on Monday night.