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

NEW YORK (AP) — 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.

AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL

Ottawa Senators center Ridly Greig, left, and New York Rangers center Vincent Trocheck, right, battle for the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Munson)

New York Rangers center Adam Edstrom (84) and Ottawa Senators center Nick Cousins (21) battle for the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Munson)

New York Rangers forward Kaapo Kakko, left, skates past Ottawa Senators forward Brady Tkachuk during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Munson)

New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin, left, and Ottawa Senators forward Zack MacEwen battle for the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Munson)

Ottawa Senators forward Adam Gaudette, left, takes a shot past New York Rangers defenseman K'Andre Miller during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Munson)

Ottawa Senators center Josh Norris, left, tries to slow down New York Rangers forward Will Cuylle, right, during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Munson)

Ottawa Senators goalie Linus Ullmark, right, makes a save on New York Rangers center Adam Edstrom, left, during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Munson)

New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin celebrates his goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Ottawa Senators, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Munson)

New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin shoots and scores during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Ottawa Senators, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Munson)

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that Republicans “probably will” try to repeal legislation that spurred U.S. production of semiconductor chips, a statement he quickly tried to walk back by saying he would like to instead “streamline” it.

Johnson made the initial comment while campaigning for a vulnerable New York GOP congressman in a district that is anticipating a large new Micron semiconductor manufacturing plant.

A reporter asked Johnson whether he would try to repeal the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had disparaged last week. “I expect that we probably will, but we haven’t developed that part of the agenda yet," Johnson replied.

Democrats quickly jumped on the Republican speaker’s comments, warning that it showed how Johnson and Trump are pursuing an aggressive conservative agenda bent on dismantling even popular government programs. The White House has credited the CHIPS Act for spurring hundreds of billions of dollars of investments as well as hundreds of thousands of jobs. Vice President Kamala Harris has pointed to the legislation on the campaign trail as proof that Democrats can be entrusted with the U.S. economy.

Johnson, who voted against the legislation, later said in a statement that the CHIPS Act, which poured $54 billion into the semiconductor manufacturing industry, “is not on the agenda for repeal."

“To the contrary, there could be legislation to further streamline and improve the primary purpose of the bill—to eliminate its costly regulations and Green New Deal requirements,” the speaker's statement said.

It wasn't the first recent comment Johnson has had to walk back. Earlier this week he had to clean up comments he made saying he wanted to “take a blow torch to the regulatory state” and make “massive” changes to the Affordable Care Act. After facing political blowback, he said that repealing the health care law was “not on the table.”

The incident was emblematic of Johnson's struggle working closely with Trump and at the same time campaigning for his House colleagues, especially those locked in tough reelection battles that are crucial to Republicans holding a narrow majority. The speaker was campaigning for Rep. Brandon Williams, a New York Republican who worked in the tech industry before running for Congress and supported the CHIPS Act.

Williams said in a statement that he spoke privately with Johnson after he suggested that the act could be repealed.

“He apologized profusely, saying he misheard the question,” Williams said.

Williams' district is anticipating a large new Micron semiconductor manufacturing plant. The company has said it received grants of $6.1 billion from the CHIPS Act to support its plans.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said in a statement Friday, “Anyone threatening to repeal the CHIPS & Science Act is threatening more than 50,000 good-paying jobs in Upstate New York and $231 billion worth of economic growth nationwide.”

Democrats are hoping that the comments give them a late boost as they try to court working class voters in regions that depend on factory jobs. Harris, during a campaign stop in Saginaw, Michigan earlier this week, toured another semiconductor factory to bring attention to the 2022 law.

In response to Johnson's comments Friday, a spokesperson for Harris' campaign, Ammar Moussa, said, "Harris is running to bring manufacturing jobs back to America and make us competitive globally. The only way to guarantee these Republicans never get a chance to repeal these laws that are creating jobs and saving Americans money is to elect her president.”

As of August, the CHIPS and Science Act had provided $30 billion in support for 23 projects in 15 states that would add 115,000 manufacturing and construction jobs, according to the Commerce Department. That funding helped to draw in private capital and would enable the United States to produce 30% of the world’s most advanced computer chips, up from 0% when the Biden-Harris administration succeeded Trump’s presidency.

Viet Shelton, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, “Most politicians usually go to a community promising to create jobs in the town they’re visiting… Mike Johnson, ever the trendsetter, decided to visit a town and promise to kill jobs in that town.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a campaign event at the Lucas County Republican Party headquarters in Holland, Ohio, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)