New York Rangers forward Alexis Lafreniere, left, celebrates his goal on Calgary Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom during the second period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, Oct. 24. 2023, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Defenseman Erik Gustafsson scored once and added an assist on Tuesday night as the New York Rangers scored three times in the second period en route to a 3-1 victory over the slumping Calgary Flames.
Chris Kreider, with his team-leading fifth goal, and Alexis Lafreniere also scored for New York. Filip Chytil chipped in with a pair of assists.
“It’s coming. We’re building some stuff, some stuff we want to work on,” said Kreider, about the team’s power play, in which he has scored three of his goals. “Each game presents a different challenge, different kill, different opportunities at different times.”
Blake Coleman scored the lone goal for Calgary, which has lost three in a row and gone 1-4-1 since winning their season opener.
“I don’t want to use the word embarrassing, but that’s a home game that we needed to come out and win and we didn’t,” said Coleman. “I think a lot of guys are pissed off and I hope everybody handles it the right way and uses that as motivation.”
After giving up a goal on the second shot of the game, New York goaltender Igor Shesterkin shut the door the rest of the way. He finished the night with 24 stops to improve to 3-2-0.
“He was really good tonight,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “We were defending too much at the end of the game and there were certainly saves that were important throughout the game, and especially in the third period there was a couple of real beauties.”
Jacob Markstrom made 17 saves for Calgary.
Down 1-0 entering the second period, the Rangers surged in front with three unanswered goals, propelled by a lethal power play.
Lafreniere tied it 1-1 at 7:38, neatly deflecting Gustafsson’s point shot out of…
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