Panarin and Lafreniere score, Shesterkin makes 40 saves, and the Rangers beat the Senators 2-1.

NEW YORK (AP) — Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere scored, Igor Shesterkin stopped 40 shots and the New York Rangers beat the Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Friday night.

Panarin scored his team-leading seventh goal 3:03 into the game, beating Senators goalie Linus Ullmark with a low shot. Alexis Lafreniere made it 2-0 on a power play at 2:56 of the third with his fifth goal.

Shesterkin held the Senators at bay until Adam Gaudette scored with 7:32 left in the third. Gaudette took one cross-ice pass from Brady Tkachuk for his fifth goal of the season.

Shesterkin improved to 5-2-1 as the Rangers bounced back from Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to Washington, only New York’s second loss this season.

Ullmark made 16 saves for the Senators.

Takeaway

Rangers: The Rangers improve to 3-1-1 at home. They are 4-1-0 on the road.

Senators: Ottawa falls to 1-4-0 on the road. The Senators have a 4-1-0 record at home.

Key Point

Shesterkin crushed high-scoring forward Claude Giroux with a spectacular point-blank save with 2:48 left in the second period. He also stopped Josh Norris twice on the power play in the third period and made a save on defenseman Nick Jensen with just over four minutes left in the third period.

Basic Statistics

Panarin has points in nine of 10 games and leads the Rangers with 16 points. The 33-year-old Russian forward led the Rangers with 120 points last season, including a career-best 49 goals.

Next

The Senators host Seattle on Saturday and the Rangers host the New York Islanders on Sunday.

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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL