Igor Shesterkin returned from injured reserve after missing four games with an upper-body injury and gave the Rangers a solid performance in a 3-2 overtime win over the Devils on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
Shesterkin made 21 saves — including 11 in the first period — and allowed the Rangers’ offense enough time to win the game in OT.
“[Shesterkin] was back and played well,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought the guys in front of him played really well, also.”
The goalie hadn’t played since Dec. 30, when he suffered the injury against the Panthers.
The Rangers, then in the midst of a four-game losing streak, won two of the four contests in Shesterkin’s absence but will need their star goaltender to make something of their season.
They also need to get better results when he’s on the ice, which they did Thursday.
He entered 11-15-1 with a 3.10 goals-against average and .906 save percentage in 27 games this season.
He was replaced by backup Jonathan Quick for three games, as well as one by Louis Domingue, who was returned to Hartford to make room for Shesterkin.
The injury to Shesterkin came less than a month after he signed an eight-year, $92 million extension with the Rangers to become the highest-paid goaltender in NHL history.
“It was nice to see him again,” Artemi Panarin said. “It gave us confidence.”
Matt Rempe returned from his eight-game suspension that was levied by the NHL after his crushing hit on Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen on Dec. 20.
Rempe had 7:47 minutes of ice time.
Laviolette called them “good minutes. He tried to play physical.”
It’s going to be a challenge for Rempe, who has been suspended twice by the league.
His return also came against a Devils team with whom Rempe has significant history.
He earned his first suspension last season with a high elbow on Jonas Siegenthaler and was also ejected from a game versus New Jersey in April when he helped start a brawl during the opening faceoff of a game at MSG.
Thursday was just Rempe’s sixth game of the season for the Rangers and he didn’t pick up a penalty.
Arthur Kaliyev, claimed off waivers by the Rangers on Monday, made his debut with the team Thursday and played 8:31.
“It was good to get him in there,” Laviolette said of the 23-year-old. “He’s been out a long time with injuries and it will take a minute for him to get up to speed. He can skate and move the puck. It was a good day one for him.”
Kaliyev, who had 35 career goals over parts of four seasons with the Kings, spent part of his childhood in Staten Island and attended Rangers games at MSG.
He played just five games with Los Angeles’ AHL affiliate in Ontario after returning from a broken clavicle suffered during the preseason before he was placed on waivers.
He was claimed after Chris Kreider was placed on the IR with an upper-body injury, but Kaliyev ended up taking Filip Chytil’s spot in the lineup.
Chytil left Tuesday’s loss with an upper-body injury and skated prior to Thursday’s skate. The fact he was on the ice was “progression,” according to Laviolette.
The coach added there remains no timetable for Chytil’s return to action, but “that he was out on the ice is a good thing.”
Jimmy Vesey was a healthy scratch.
