SEATTLE — For a game that will go down in history as the inaugural matchup between the Rangers and the Kraken, goaltender Igor Shesterkin immediately etched himself in the rivalry’s legacy. 

With just over eight minutes left in regulation and the game tied 1-1, Shesterkin came up with one of his many clutch saves of the night, this one on Seattle’s Brandon Tanev right in front of the Rangers’ net. The play instantly went the other way and Artemi Panarin found Adam Fox for the game-winning goal to help propel the Rangers to a 3-1 victory over the Kraken on Sunday night at Climate Pledge Arena. 

“He was unbelievable,” Barclay Goodrow, who added an empty-net goal to seal the win, said of Shesterkin. “He is the sole factor of how we won that game.” 

In front of a crowd of 17,151 that featured a noticeable amount of Rangers fans, who made their presence felt with a prominent ‘Let’s go Rangers!’ chant prior to warm-ups and a couple ‘Potvin sucks!’ jeers sprinkled throughout the game, the Blueshirts extended their streak to 6-0-0 against the last six expansion teams. 

The Rangers have now won six of their past seven games after opening the season with two losses. 

Shesterkin, who finished with 32 saves in his seventh start in nine games, put the Rangers on his back once again — especially during a lopsided second period that saw the Kraken post a 13-2 advantage in shots. Seattle ended up capitalizing in the middle period when former Islander Jordan Eberle caught Shesterkin off guard with a wicked backhanded shot from the right circle to knot the game 1-1 at 13:46. 

Despite losing forward Jared McCann at the last minute to COVID-19 protocol, in addition to assistant coach Paul McFarland, the Kraken came out of the first period down just a single goal after Chris Kreider opened the scoring off the rush at 3:38 for his seventh score of the season. That’s the most for a Ranger through the first nine games of a season since Rick Nash in 2014-15. The goal also tied Kreider with Phil Esposito for the 15th most in franchise history. 

The Rangers came dangerously close to their version of a Halloween nightmare, when Fox headed to the locker room roughly halfway through the first period. He returned to the Rangers bench toward the end of the opening frame and finished the remainder of the game. In his postgame interview, Fox confirmed he was “all good.” 

Head coach Gerard Gallant said he felt the Rangers stopped playing in the second period, pointing out that the team couldn’t put the puck on net and lost nearly every faceoff. Plus, the Rangers were caught with too many men on the ice on two separate occasions in the win, but Shesterkin’s heroics stole another victory. 

“It’s repetitive when we talk about it,” Fox said. “We can sing [Shesterkin’s] praises for days, but he keeps us in every game and you never feel like you’re out. It’s a tie game and he keeps it that way, and obviously we get one. I can’t say enough good things about him.” 

Asked how much longer the Rangers can keep relying on Shesterkin to steal wins, Gallant half-jokingly alluded to the rest of the season. 

“Well, what do we got? 70-something games [left]?” he said. “No, we weren’t good. I thought we came out and played a great first 10 minutes, that was a great road period in this building. The next 30 minutes was awful, and Igor stole the show again.”