Rangers defeat Predators in shootout
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- After a night of being booed and hearing his name used in derogatory chants, New York Rangers rookie Jimmy Vesey got revenge.
Vesey got one of New York's two goals in the shootout Saturday night as it edged the Nashville Predators 2-1 at Bridgestone Arena.
Mats Zuccarello got the other shootout goal for the Rangers (22-10-1), while Henrik Lundqvist stopped both Nashville attempts.
Lundqvist (14-8-1) made 31 saves for New York, while backup goalie Juuse Saros (1-2-1), making his fourth start of the season, stopped 26 of 27 shots.
The Rangers swept their two-game road trip through Dallas and Nashville, while the Predators (13-12-5) dropped to 2-4-2 in December.
New York initiated scoring at 7:47 of the first period as Rick Nash beat Saros from a bad angle with a wrister off the left wing to the top right corner. It was the 13th goal for Nash, who scored in his last six games against Nashville.
Predators center Mike Fisher tied it at 9:22 of the second period with his ninth goal of the season and fourth in the last three games. Fisher's wrister from about 50 feet out eluded Lundqvist, who appeared to have been screened by Colin Wilson.
Nashville controlled most of the third period, outshooting the Rangers 14-6. But Lundqvist came up with a handful of saves on point-blank attempts to force overtime, most notably denying Ryan Johansen early and James Neal late.
New York had a quality chance to win it in overtime, but Chris Kreider missed an open net off Kevin Hayes' feed to the left post.
Vesey, a third round pick of Nashville in the 2012 Entry Draft who opted not to play for the organization after a stellar career at Harvard, was booed all night merely for stepping on the ice.
Vesey nearly untied the game late in the second period from the right faceoff circle, but his power-play wrister missed high and wide.
But when he got his chance in the shootout, Vesey applied the silencer.
NOTES: New York has an NHL-high 22 wins, reaching 21 wins in its first 32 games for the fifth time in franchise history. The last time it did so was 1993-94, its one Stanley Cup-winning season since 1940. ... Nashville D P.K. Subban (upper-body injury) missed his first game of the season Saturday night, with Petter Granberg drawing back into the lineup in his place. ... The Rangers scratched D Adam Clendening and C Brandon Pirri. ... C Reid Boucher was the only healthy scratch for the Predators.