Trent Frederic scored, Stuart Skinner stopped all 30 shots he faced and the back-to-back defending Western Conference-champion Edmonton Oilers beat the New York Rangers 2-0 on Tuesday night.

The Rangers became the first team in NHL history to get shut out in each of their first three home games of a season.

Skinner joined Washington's Charlie Lindgren and the Pittsburgh Penguins' Arturs Silovs in blanking New York over the past eight days. His best save early came after Evan Bouchard turned the puck over, and Skinner denied Will Cuylle on a high-danger scoring chance in front. He also gloved a shot from Sam Carrick with 2:31 left.

Adam Henrique sealed it with an empty-netter with 1:08 left.

Igor Shesterkin turned aside 20 of the 21 shots the Oilers put on net. The only goal he allowed came midway through the second period when Kasperi Kapanen sprung Frederic in all alone past defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and beat Shesterkin five-hole.

New York had opportunities, including consecutive power plays that included 12 seconds of five-on-three time. Fans booed late in the second of those after Edmonton cleared the puck down the ice and again later to express their dissatisfaction.

The Rangers kept three-time MVP Connor McDavid and longtime running mate Leon Draisaitl off the scoresheet, just as they did with Sidney Crosby last week. Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch split McDavid and Draisaitl for the third after playing them together in each of the first two games of the season and the opening two periods on Tuesday night.

"You're dying to give the fans a reason to cheer"

"I don't know whether to laugh or cry," Mika Zibanejad said. "I honestly don't know."

The Rangers' 180-minute drought at Madison Square Garden is the second-longest to start a season at home, behind only the now-defunct Pittsburgh Pirates in 1928. They went the first 187:19 without a goal at Duquesne Gardens before Hib Milks scored in the third period of their home game.

The previous longest in modern era among teams that still exist was 155:17 by the Florida Panthers in 2001.

"This is a unique start to a season," captain J.T. Miller said. "It sucks that we had a couple games where we feel like we've really thrown a lot at the other team and we're not getting rewarded."

"We can all go home and sleep well knowing we played another good home game," Miller said. "We're competitors. We want to win. We'd love to see the puck go in the net. Right now, it's not."

"We have two crossbars that go crossbar or post that goes right by the goal line," Zibanejad said. "I think we're creating lots of chances. I think there's enough high-danger chances that we're creating, but we're not scoring. Simple."

The Rangers have failed to score on their first 90 shots on goal at home, and fans booed at one point when they came up empty on consecutive power plays.

"You're dying to give the fans a reason to cheer," Carrick said. "They support us every night hugely here. Obviously they want to come and see goals. That's the frustrating part."

They'll have to wait nearly a week for their next game on home ice. New York goes on the road for games at Toronto and Montreal before returning to host Minnesota on Monday night. Every player who spoke after the Oilers game had the same train of thought about not abandoning the structure that contributed to winning twice on the road and being competitive.

"It's on us to make sure that the mindset stays the same in here and we don't go off the grid to find something," Miller said. "We need to stay the course. Over time, results will come."

Up next

Oilers: Visit the New York Islanders on Thursday night.

Rangers: Visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.