Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere score, Igor Shesterkin makes 40 saves as Rangers beat Senators 2-1

By ALLAN KREDA
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-best seventh goal 3:03 into the game, beating Senators goalie Linus Ullmark with a low shot. Alexis Lafreniere made it 2-0 on the power play at 2:56 of the third with his fifth goal.
Shesterkin kept the Senators at bay until Adam Gaudette scored with 7:32 remaining in the third. Gaudette one-timed a cross-ice pass from Brady Tkachuk for his fifth goal of the season.
Shesterkin improved to 5-2-1 as the Rangers rebounded from Tuesday’s 5-3 loss at Washington, which was only New York’s second regulation loss this season.
Ullmark made 16 saves for the Senators.
Rangers: The Rangers improved to 3-1-1 at home. They are 4-1-0 on the road.
Senators: Ottawa fell to 1-4-0 on the road. The Senators are 4-1-0 at home.
Shesterkin denied high-scoring forward Claude Giroux with a spectacular point-blank glove save with 2:48 left in the second period. He also stopped Josh Norris twice during a third-period power play and made a sliding pad save on defenseman Nick Jensen with just over four minutes left in the third.
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 — including a career-best 49 goals — last season.
Senators host Seattle on Saturday, and the Rangers host the New York Islanders on Sunday.