NEW YORK — The last time the Rangers played the Devils, back on Nov. 28, their season just about bottomed out.
Coming off a game where they’d blown a three-goal lead in the third period against Edmonton and lost, the Blueshirts blew a two-goal lead against New Jersey and lost.
Afterward, goaltender Igor Shesterkin took responsibility for the loss, saying he’d “played a [expletive] game, again,’’ and adding that he was “ashamed’’ of how he was playing.
Two weeks later, though, the team, and the goalie, were in a better place.
The Rangers had won three straight entering Monday’s rematch with the Devils at Madison Square Garden and despite falling behind by two goals before the game was five minutes old, they extended their streak to four when Filip Chytil ripped a shot past Devils goalie Vitek Vanecek at 2:15 of overtime, off a pass from Artemi Panarin, to give them a 4-3 victory.
The Rangers, who trailed 3-1 midway through the second period, rallied on goals seven seconds apart from Vincent Trocheck and Kaapo Kakko to tie the game, and then won it in the three-on-three overtime to improve their season’s record to 15-10-5.
The Rangers went 4-1-1 in between the Devils loss and Monday, and Shesterkin went 3-0-1, with a .933 save percentage and 2.16 goals-against average. In the two games in Vegas and Colorado, Shesterkin gave up one goal in each game, on 26 and 42 shots, a save percentage of .971.
The Devils were unimpressed, as they quickly took a 2-0 lead. Jacob Trouba, the Rangers captain, failed to get a puck out of the zone and the Devils got a shot by Tomas Tatar that Shesterkin saved. On the ensuing faceoff, Devils captain Nico Hischier won the draw cleanly back to Jonas Siegenthaler at the left point, and Siegenthaler flipped a shot that Hischier deflected (and Trouba may have deflected) past Shesterkin. The goal, at 3:05, was originally credited to Siegenthaler, but later changed to Hischier.
Then, at 4:46, Dawson Mercer scored for New Jersey from the left circle after Trouba was stripped of the puck by Erik Haula in the slot.
The Rangers were reeling at that point, and were outshot 6-0 over the game’s first 10 minutes. But they gained momentum in the second half of the period, outshooting the Devils 7-0 in the final 10.
Rangers coach Gerard Gallant swapped the centers on his top two lines, putting Mika Zibanejad between Panarin and Barclay Goodrow and putting the Kid Line — Alexis Lafrenière, Chytil and Kakko — back together. He also dropped Trouba down to the third defense pair, partnering him with Libor Hajek while elevating Braden Schneider to his old spot on the right of K’Andre Miller.
The Rangers got on the board on Chris Kreider’s one-timer off a two-on-one pass from Vincent Trocheck at 18:25 of the first period.
Hughes took any Rangers momentum away when he scored at 11:05 of the second period, cutting in from the wing and beating Shesterkin with a couple of dekes and a backhander lifted up over the goalie’s shoulder to make it 3-1.
But Hughes had a chance to put the game away when he was awarded a penalty shot at 12:50, and he failed. He swooped in from the left and made a few dekes, but Shesterkin, who was falling backwards and appeared to be beaten, managed to get his stick on the puck before Hughes could get his shot off.
The Rangers started their comeback when Trocheck tipped in Adam Fox's shot on a power play at 13:58, and then, off the ensuing faceoff, Chytil ended up with the puck in the left circle and dropped a pass to Miller, who swung it cross-crease to Kakko, who banged it in at 14:05 to tie it.
