PITTSBURGH (AP) — Igor Shesterkin toyed with the Pittsburgh Penguins during the regular season. The New York Rangers’ goaltender even waved Sidney Crosby and company off the ice following a shutout victory in early April.
Fast forward a month and Shesterkin’s swagger is suddenly gone. So, seemingly, is the Vezina Trophy favorite’s confidence. Getting pulled twice in three days while the opposing crowd chants your name as puck after puck makes its way behind you into the net will do that.
And now the only thing Shesterkin and the Rangers are threatening to wave goodbye to is their once-promising season.
Crosby had a goal and three assists to become just the sixth player in NHL history to reach 200 career playoff points and the Penguins chased Shesterkin off the PPG Paints Arena ice once again in a dominant 7-2 victory on Monday night to take a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
The Penguins, limited to just four goals in four games by Shesterkin in the regular season, can close out the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night.
“I think we know we have a lot of work left,” Crosby said. “When you’re in a game like this, you know you’re going to see the other team’s best the next time.”
Maybe, though it wouldn’t take much for New York to improve over an effort in which they let the Penguins pump in five goals during the second period.
“I don’t think you’re going to find a guy who is happy with that performance,” Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “There’s not really a whole lot to say. We know we have to be better to a man.”
Especially the man in net. Shesterkin dazzled during Games 1 and 2 in New York, making 118 combined saves and looking every bit the dominant force that suffocated the Penguins for much of the year.
Not so much anymore. He lasted just one period in Game 3 after giving up four goals. He only made it through two periods in Game 4, spending the third on the bench after surrendering six goals on 30 shots.
New York coach Gerard Gallant pledged to start the 26-year-old Shesterkin with the Rangers one loss away from elimination.
“He’s the best goalie in the league,” Gallant said.
Perhaps, but Shesterkin isn’t playing like it at the moment, though he’s hardly the only one to blame after the Rangers allowed a staggering 14 goals at raucous PPG Paints Arena.
Five of them came during a second period on Monday night in which the Penguins tilted the game — and perhaps ultimately the series — in their favor. Jake Guentzel, Jeff Carter, Danton Heinen, Mark Friedman and Mike Matheson all found a way to make Shesterkin turn around and fish the puck out of the net as the red goal light blared and the fans derisively chanted “IIIIGOORRRR.”
The goals came in a variety of ways. Tip-ins. Redirects. A lucky bounce. Open shots from the slot. After urging his players repeatedly to stop trying to make the highlight play and simply throw the puck on net, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan’s team appears to be listening.
Pittsburgh has fired 266 shots at the Rangers so far in the series. And while that number is skewed a bit by a three-overtime thriller in Game 1, it’s indicative of a change in mindset.
“We’ve preached to our team all year that we have to evolve and create offense different ways,” Sullivan said. “We can’t get stubborn. We have to take what the game gives us.”
Carter attributed it to better execution and even better effort. This postseason could be the last stand for Pittsburgh’s core three of Crosby, Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang. The trio is making their 16th straight playoff appearance together. It could also be their last with Malkin and Letang set to be free agents this summer.
Maybe that possibility has galvanized the Penguins. Or maybe the familiar adrenaline that comes with the Stanley Cup has helped a roster littered with 30-somethings find the fountain of youth. Pittsburgh is on the cusp of winning a playoff round for the first time since 2018.
“We have a veteran group in there and these guys have been through this a lot,” Sullivan said. “So I think everyone understands the position that we’re in and we’ve got to go out and earn the next one. That has to be our mindset.”
While Shesterkin has struggled, Pittsburgh third-stringer Louis Domingue is nearing local cult hero status while filling in for injured All-Star Tristan Jarry. Domingue made 22 saves to win his third game of the series. Not bad for a 30-year-old journeyman making his playoff debut after spending most of the last three seasons in the minors.
While Domingue — with the speakers blasting the chorus of the rock classic “Louie Louie” after particularly big stops — appears to be settling into the rhythm of the postseason, Shesterkin seems rattled.
Two goals 22 seconds apart early in the second period gave the Penguins a 3-1 lead. Two more 39 seconds apart near the end of the period effectively ended Shesterkin’s night and pushed New York to the brink.
NOTES: The victory was Sullivan’s 44th of the playoffs, breaking a tie with former Penguins coach Dan Bylsma for most postseason wins in franchise history. … Crosby’s 201 playoff points are tied with Jaromir Jagr for fifth all-time. Wayne Gretzky is atop the list with 395.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
