Recap: Rangers Snap Losing Streak, Beat the Blues 3-2

In what some would consider a “can’t lose” game, the Rangers were back on home ice to host the St. Louis Blues. After some massive question marks coming out of morning skate today, Vincent Trocheck—who was labeled a game time decision— was a full participant in warmups and good to go. This drastically helped the Rangers who were already facing some massive holes in their lineup as J.T. Miller and Will Borgen remained out with injuries. Filling those voids, Urho Vaakanainen was rejoined the lineup with Brett Berard making his season debut. 

First Period

It was a better start for the Rangers albeit still quite sloppy. With the puck bouncing and guys falling all over the place—most notably Taylor Raddysh in the midst of bringing the puck towards the slot—it took some time for either side to find their footing in this one. 

The Rangers best chance early on came from a great shift from the third line as Conor Sheary threw a puck on net that created a rebound chance for Brett Berard. Had the puck not been rolling, there was as good a chance as any that puck ends up in the back of the net. 

The Blues had a golden opportunity to get on the board soon after as Brayden Schenn found himself on a breakaway but was turned away by Igor Shesterkin. From that moment on, the tide turned a bit in the Blues favor as the Rangers were caught in their own end for close to two minutes where they iced the puck twice before being able to go for a line change. 

As the period went on, the Rangers started to generate some more consistent offense. Braden Schneider had a look off a nice pass for Jonny Brodzinski. Most notably, Berard nearly had another chance as it was mentioned on the broadcast he could be heard all the way from the bridge at MSG calling for the pass in order to get a shot off. 

With about two and a half to go, the Blues spent some time moving the puck around the Rangers zone. This came to an end as Dylan Holloway let a shot go through traffic from the left face-off circle that beat Shesterkin on the glove side to make it a 1-0 game. 

Another very low event period of hockey that did not end in the Rangers favor despite what some of the stats indicated. Shots after the opening twenty were 9-5 in the Rangers’ favor who also led 5-0 in high danger scoring chances. The Rangers were struggling in the face-off circle, only winning 10 of 23 and of their nine shots, half of them belonged to Brett Berard and Jonny Brodzinski. 

Second Period

After several consecutive icings to start the middle stanza, Vladislav Gavrikov took a puck up high that resulted in the officials blowing the play dead and the Rangers’ trainer rushing to the ice. Thankfully, Gavrikov got up on his own power and was back to the ice not long after. 

Right after the midway point of the period, the Rangers finally got on the board. A great pass from Adam Fox sent Brodzinski right down the slot where he was able to dish it over to a breaking Trocheck with a wide open net to shoot at. 

About two minutes later, the Rangers took the first penalty of the night as Schneider got the stick up high on Jake Neighbours. The penalty killers took care of business, holding the Blues to just one shot on the man advantage. 

Aside from the Trocheck goal and a big hit from Schneider on Holloway in the final minute of the period, there really wasn’t much of note to happen. Shots after two periods of play were now 14-12 in the Rangers favor. Additionally, they remained ahead in the high danger count now 6-2 but still hadn’t established a clear advantage in the overall pace of play. They would need to find a way to do that in the third if they wanted to come out of this one with a win.

Third Period

It took the Rangers 40 seconds to establish their first lead of the night. A shot from Gavrikov at the point took a redirect off the stick of Alexis Lafrenière in the slot to find the back of the net, making it a 2-1 game. 

With eleven minutes to go a shot from Fox at the point took a redirect and ended up in the corner. There, Gavrikov was able to chip the puck back in the direction of the slot where Adam Edstrom was right there at the door step to send a quick shot past Joel Hofer to extend the Rangers’ lead 3-1. That’s a pair of goals in the last three games for Edstrom.

With just under six minutes to go, the Rangers had a big challenge ahead of them as Berard was called for a double minor after getting the stick up high on Neighbours. After the Rangers held the Blues off for three-fourths of the advantage, the Blues pulled Hofer for the extra attacker to make it a 6-on-4 for about a minute.

It would turn into a massive penalty kill for the Rangers as they came out of it unscathed. With 85 seconds left in the game, the Blues utilized their timeout. This proved to be a wise choice as they were able to take advantage of an offensive zone face-off win. Pavel Buchnevich let a shot go from a weird angle that took a bounce off the thigh of Schenn to turn this into a one goal game.

It wouldn't be easy, but the Rangers were able to hold on to pick up a much needed pair of points. Snapping a four game losing streak, the Rangers came out on top of the Blues and start the busy holiday week off on the right foot. Final shots on goal tally were 22-20 in the Blues favor.

The Rangers will hit the road again and be right back at it Wednesday Night as they'll have a rematch with the Carolina Hurricanes.