NEW YORK (AP) — Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin was pulled in the second period against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night after giving up five goals on 12 shots.
The 28-year-old Russian, who entered the contest with a 6-2-1 with a 2.22 goals-against average, allowed a goal by Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin 26 seconds into the game.
He then gave up four goals in the second period — including three in a span of 2:12 span — as the Sabres took a 5-0 lead. Dylan Cozens, Tage Thompson, Jordan Greenway and Sam Lafferty scored in the middle period before Shesterkin was replaced by Jonathan Quick with 6:09 to go after Lafferty scored.
The Sabres went on to beat the Rangers 6-1.
“It really unraveled in the second,″ Rangers defenseman and captain Jacob Trouba said. “Our goalie has kind of kept us in this thing for the first 12 games. We’ve got to be better and give up less quality chances.”
The Rangers, who fell to 8-3-1 this season, have been winning largely because of Shesterkin's stellar play.
“This certainly was not our best,″ Rangers defenseman Adam Fox said. ”We left him out to dry. It’s not good enough.”
Shesterkin won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender in 2021-22 when he was 36-13-4 with a 2.07 goals against average. He won 37 games in 2022-23 and 36 last season as the Rangers finished with the NHL’s best record.
Shesterkin is in the final season of a four-year, $22.67 million contract and there has been talk of him wanting to be the highest-paid goaltender in NHL history.
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New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (31) and Adam Fox react as Buffalo Sabres' Jordan Greenway (12) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Members of Venezuela’s political opposition who have been sheltering for months in the Argentine diplomatic compound in the capital, Caracas, on Saturday detailed their deteriorating living conditions as they sought to grow a sense of urgency among the governments working to secure their safe departure from their home country.
Their comments to reporters via an online news conference came three days after Argentina’s government urged the Organization of American States to pressure Venezuela to allow the safe passage of the six members of the opposition living at the ambassador’s residence.
The harassment, according to those who spoke to reporters, includes constant surveillance by heavily armed security agents, the interruption of water and electric services, and this week’s arrest of a longtime local employee of the Argentine embassy.
“We are seeing how the process of violating our basic human rights is accelerating, and it is urgent to be able to stop this situation of control and repression against us, whether psychological or real,” said Magalli Meda, campaign manager of opposition powerhouse María Corina Machado.
Venezuela’s Minister of Interior Diosdado Cabello last week called the group’s allegations a “farce.”
The government of President Javier Milei in August transferred custody of the diplomatic compound in Caracas to Brazil after Venezuela expelled Argentina’s diplomats. The move followed a July presidential election marred by serious fraud allegations and which both President Nicolás Maduro and the opposition claim to have won.
But Maduro revoked Brazil’s authorization to guard the facility in September, even though that nation’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had attempted to help Venezuela break its political stalemate following the presidential vote.
“The Brazilian Foreign Ministry has made the contacts and the corresponding arrangements,” said Pedro Urruchurtu, who along three other men and two women has lived at the diplomatic facility since March. "We ask Brazil to have a much greater sense of urgency, in this sense it means redoubling efforts and coordination with the region and understanding that this situation can clearly get worse and therefore demands the attention of the entire region.”
Venezuela’s protracted political crisis deepened after the July 28 presidential election. The country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared him the election winner hours after polls closed. But unlike previous presidential elections, electoral authorities did not provide detailed vote counts.
Meanwhile, the opposition, led by Machado, collected tally sheets from 80% of the nation’s electronic voting machines, posted them online and said the voting records showed that the faction’s candidate, Edmundo González, had won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.
On Wednesday, more than a dozen members of the Organization of American States joined Argentina’s call on Maduro’s government to allow the safe passage of those living at the ambassador’s residence.
FILE - A police patrol car sits parked outside Argentina's embassy where some members of Venezuela's opposition are seeking asylum inside, in Caracas, Venezuela, July 31, 2024, three days after the contested presidential election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
