Rangers record third straight shutout, beat Jets

NEW YORK (AP) — Ryan Strome scored twice, Adam Fox added a goal and Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves as the New York Rangers recorded a third-straight shutout and their 50th win of the season, 3-0 over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.

Eric Comrie made 31 saves for the Jets, who were officially eliminated post-season contention with the loss.

After a scoreless first period, Strome broke through on the power play against Comrie at 15:57 of the second. Assists went to Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin. Zibanejad has a career-high 50 assists and 78 points.

Fox scored his 11th of the season at 11:47 of the third, with assists to Panarin and former Jets forward Andrew Copp.

Panarin has points in seven of his last eight games and a career-best 70 assists.

Strome added an empty-net goal — his 19th — at 19:27 to complete the scoring, with assists to Chris Kriender and Copp, who has points (five goals, 10 assists) in 12 of his 14 games with New York since being acquired from Winnipeg on March 21.

Shesterkin was stellar from the start, making six saves in the first, 12 in the second and 13 in the third. The shutout was his second straight and sixth of the season. He also blanked Detroit 4-0 on Saturday after backup Alexandar Georgiev stopped Philadelphia 4-0 on April 13.

Shesterkin’s best save was a point-blank right arm stop on Jets captain Blake Wheeler at 17:23 of the middle period. He also denied Nikolaj Ehlers with just over five minutes left in the third to preserve the shutout. The 26-year-old Russian netminder improved to 36-11-4.

The Rangers haven’t allowed a goal since an empty-net score with six seconds left in the third period of a 4-2 home loss to Carolina last Tuesday.

The Rangers reached the 50-win mark for the