New York Rangers hand Columbus Blue Jackets a second straight shutout loss
Who turned the power off on the Blue Jackets’ scoring machine?
Almost a week after setting a franchise record with their 12th game of six-plus goals by routing the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, somebody pulled the plug Saturday night at Nationwide Arena. The Rangers got their revenge before a sellout-crowd of 18,464 that watched Igor Shesterkin pitch his second shutout of the season against the Blue Jackets in a 4-0 victory that gave New York the second wild card in the Eastern Conference and bumped Columbus out of a playoff spot.
It was the Blue Jackets' second straight shutout loss and third in their past five games.
Alexis Lafreniere and former Blue Jackets star Artemi Panarin scored goals in the first two periods to give the Rangers (33-28-6) a 2-0 lead and Shesterkin (20 saves) did the rest for his fourth career blanking of Columbus. Daniil Tarasov (18 saves) started for the Blue Jackets while Elvis Merzlikins took a leave of absence to be with his wife who's expecting their second child.
Vincent Trocheck added two insurance goals for New York in the third, including the second into an empty net for the final score of 4-0. The loss was another gut punch for the Blue Jackets (31-27-8), who’ve took their second straight shutout loss and haven’t scored a goal since Mathieu Olivier’s goal 10:29 into the third period of a 5-3 loss Tuesday at the New Jersey Devils.
They've gone a span of 129:31 without a goal, which the Jackets simply can’t afford while trying to stay afloat among seven teams within four points of the second wild-card spot.
New York led 1-0 after the first period on a goal by Lefreniere that followed the Blue Jackets’ second straight start without scoring.
Mika Zibanejad did everything but score the Ranger’s first goal, poking the puck off Blue Jackets defenseman Damon Severson’s stick, chasing it down, lifting Tarasov’s stick outside the left post and tapping a pass to Lefreniere for a shot into the empty net.
It was the third straight time the Blue Jackets allowed the game’s first goal, which lessened their odds of winning just 1:43 into the game. The Jackets, who are 24-9-5 when scoring first, dropped to just 7-18-3 when allowing the first goal.
Lafreniere’s goal was the only one scored in the opening period, which ended with the Blue Jackets holding a 9-4 edge in shots. Panarin made it 2-0 with 8:24 left in the second, scoring 24 seconds after New York killed off a power play, but that wasn’t the biggest disappointment of the period for Columbus.
That happened at the 8:12 mark when Dmitri Voronkov was set up alone in the low slot off a pass from Adam Fantilli. After deking Shesterkin to the ice with a great move to his forehand, the Russian power forward slid his attempted shot along the goal line and off the bottom of the right post on the far side.
Rather than tying it 1-1, the puck caromed away while Voronkov slammed his stick into the end boards in frustration. That’s largely how it’s gone for the Jackets since they torched the Rangers in New York.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: New York Rangers hand Columbus Blue Jackets another shutout loss
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