A six-game losing skid brings the Montreal Canadiens (8th in Atlantic Division) to the first contest of their upcoming four-date homestand, with the New York Rangers (3rd in Metropolitan) paying a visit on the back of two consecutive victories.
The New York Rangers (21-12-6) recorded their second straight victory after following up Sunday’s 5-3 road win at the Florida Panthers with another 5-3 success, beating the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. The Blueshirts tied the game on three separate occasions before K’Andre Miller (3 goals, 18 points this year) broke a 3-3 tie midway through the third period, with Filip Chytil (9 goals, 19 points) scoring New York’ fifth marker of the night into an empty net during power play with 1:03 remaining. With that, the Rangers picked up their 10th triumph in the last 13 matchups (10-2-1).
Goalie Igor Shesterkin made 20 saves on Tuesday and has now gone 18-6-5 for the ongoing season with a 2.43 GAA and a .917 save percentage. He has registered a perfect 2-0-0 career total against the Montreal Canadiens with a 1.51 GAA and a .954 save percentage. The Rangers, meanwhile, are netting the 14th highest amount of goals per game this year (3.23), while giving up the 8th lowest quantity on the defensive end (2.72). They are sitting 11th in power play with a 23.8% success rate and 12th in penalty kill with 80.7% efficiency.