Andrei Vasilevskiy may be the best goalie in the world, but Igor Shesterkin was the best in this series despite the Lightning ousting the Rangers.
TAMPA, Fla. — Igor Shesterkin was right, but was wrong, too.
Even with the Rangers having taken a surprising 2-0 series lead, beating Vasilevskiy for nine goals on 62 shots, Shesterkin doubled down and stood by his gaudy compliment of the 27-year-old Vasilevskiy. Igor Shesterkin stops a Zach Bogosian shot for one of his 28 saves in the Rangers’ season-ending 2-1 loss to the Lightning.Tampa Bay had the better of play in the first 20 minutes, looking like the more desperate, hungry team than the Rangers, who looked slow, sluggish and tired by comparison to the Lightning energy.
The best save Shesterkin made in the game came just 1:30 into the second period when Steven Stamkos passed to Nikita Kucherov in front and Shesterkin made an acrobatic save sliding to his left and reaching out for the stop. He wasn’t screened, with no Lightning players crowding the net like they’d been doing all series, and with not even a lot of mustard on the shot.Stamkos left out a word there: Tampa Bay “finally’’ got one by Shesterkin.