Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves as the New York Rangers downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 on Saturday.
Chris Kreider, with two, Alexis Lafreniere and Artemi Panarin scored for New York (4-0-1). Mika Zibanejad and Reilly Smith each had a pair of assists.
Auston Matthews replied for Toronto (3-2-0). Anthony Stolarz stopped 25 shots.
Shesterkin made a number of big stops throughout the night, including on John Tavares and a couple off William Nylander.
Matthews, who led the NHL with 69 goals last season, broke the Russian netminder’s shutout bid in the third period when he scored his second of 2024-25 to cut New York’s lead to 2-1 before Kreider and Panarin scored into the empty net.
The game featured two of the league’s heavyweights in Leafs winger Ryan Reaves and Rangers counterpart Matt Rempe, who had a memorable fight at Scotiabank Arena last season, but the bruising forwards didn’t …