NEW YORK — The New York Rangers scored three straight goals in the third period to rally for a 6-4 win against the St. Louis Blues at Madison Square Garden on Monday.
K’Andre Miller scored the tying goal with 15:12 remaining. Alexis Lafreniere got the eventual game-winner 3:28 later Chris Kreider iced it by scoring on a short-handed breakaway with 5:56 left.
Vincent Trocheck had a goal and an assist, Artemi Panarin had two assists to give him 599 NHL points (193 goals, 406 assists) and Igor Shesterkin made 25 saves for the Rangers (12-10-4), who ended a four-game home losing streak (0-3-1).
“We’ve got higher expectations for ourselves than anyone else outside this room or even in this organization has for us,” Kreider said. “The group in this room has very high expectations. We put more pressure on ourselves than anyone else ever could. So, for us it’s important to see pucks go in. It’s important to get the two points and obviously to take the things we did. well, the things we had success doing into the next game. It’s about stacking it now.”
Video: STL@NYR: Kreider speeds ahead for shorthanded goal
Jordan Kyrou had a goal and assist returning from missing one game with an illness, and Jordan Binnington made 18 saves for the Blues (11-14-0), who lost their fourth game in a row and for the sixth time in seven games.
“It’s our mistakes that are causing their goals,” Kyrou said. “We have to be better with that. We have to clean that up.”
Blues coach Craig Berube said he felt the team played tentatively in the third period.
“We’re not a confident hockey team,” Berube said. “We’ve got to keep working at getting out of that. You’ve just got to go play. You can’t play tentative and you can’t play tight. You’ve got to loosen up and play. We did that. for two periods, but the third, it didn’t happen.”
Rangers coach Gerard Gallant made some changes to the forward lines late in the second period, moving Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko up from the third line to play with first-line center Mika Zibanejadand dropping Kreider and Jimmy Vesey to the third line with Barclay Goodrow.
“I wasn’t liking what I was seeing midway through the second period,” Gallant said. “I just wanted to try and spark something again.”
Those changes coupled with the Rangers simplifying their game by getting shots and traffic to the net led to their success in the third period.
Miller’s shot from inside the blue line squeaked through Binnington at 4:48 to tie the game 4-4. Lafreniere had an assist.
Lafreniere made it 5-4 at 8:16 by getting in between the circles and deflecting Zibanejad’s spinning shot from the point.
Video: STL@NYR: Lafrenière scores tip-in goal in the 3rd
Kreider took advantage of Ivan Barbashev‘s turnover to make it 6-4 at 14:04.
“When we get our forecheck going and we play in their end that’s when we create turnovers and we get our chances,” Lafreniere said. “Our third period was really good. We said it after two, ‘We’re only down by one.’ We can score when we work hard.”
Braden Schneider gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 17:14 of the first period, beating Binnington with a shot from the right face-off circle.
Pavel Buchnevich scored 70 seconds later to make it 1-1. Nick Leddy‘s one-timer from the point hit off Buchnevich’s body and got behind Shesterkin. The Blues forward chipped it in at 18:24.
When New York regained the lead Adam Fox made it 2-1 with a power-play goal at 19:32.
The back and forth continued 12 seconds into the second period, when Vladimir Tarasenko made it 2-2 with a shot off Fox’s stick.
Trocheck gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead at 1:07 by deflecting Panarin’s shot from inside the blue line.
The five combined goals in a span of 3:53 bridging the first and second periods are the fastest five goals by two teams in the NHL this season.
The Blues then tied it 3-3 on Kyrou’s power-play goal off a one-timer at 11:04.
Video: STL@NYR: Kyrou rips the puck to score
Ryan O’Reilly gave St. Louis a 4-3 lead 1:21 later, scoring off a rebound Brayden Schenn‘s shot that came off a give and go with Kyrou.
“I thought the first two periods were really good,” Berube said.
The Rangers head west for road games against the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday and the Colorado Avalanche on Friday.
“The streak we’ve been on the last two weeks hasn’t been good, so definitely to get a win tonight, it’s positive moving forward,” Gallant said. “We better be ready to play on the road.”
NOTES: Kreider has points in 10 straight home games (six goals, four assists), the second-longest home points streak in the NHL behind the Dallas Stars forward. Jason Robertson‘s active streak of 12. … Fox extended his home point streak to nine games (three goals, seven assists), the fourth-longest by a Rangers defenseman. Brian Leetch had streaks of 18, 15 and 12 games during his career. … Rangers forward Filip Chytil missed his second game with a lower-body injury. He’s day to day.
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