It likely isn’t much comfort to him after being pulled from a second straight playoff game, but Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin has been officially announced as a Vezina Trophy finalist.
The announcement should hardly come as a surprise, as Shesterkin led the league with a 2.07 GAA and a .935 save percentage. His ascent to the top of the league’s goalie ranks was a main catalyst behind the Rangers ending their playoff drought and finishing the regular season with 110 points, the third most the team has ever posted.
Shesterkin looked like a Vezina winner through the first two games of New York’s playoff series, stopping 79 shots in six periods of action during game one’s triple overtime thriller, and stopping 39 of 41 shots in a game two win. But Shesterkin was benched in the middle of games three and four, allowing five goals in the second period of Wednesday night’s 7-2 loss in game four in Pittsburgh.
The other finalist are Nashville’s Juuse Saros and Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom.
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