Yet again, the New York Rangers failed to piece together a complete 60-minute effort. As such, their spirited comeback late in the third period wasn’t enough in a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Sunday.
Trailing 3-0 and generating very little offensively through the first 50 minutes, the Rangers finally broke through on goals 1:19 apart by Brett Berard and Will Cuylle to pull within a goal with 8:23 remaining in regulation. But even with an extended 6-on-5, the Rangers didn’t come close to scoring the equalizer and lost for the second time this weekend. They are 3-10-0 in their past 13 games.
The Rangers (15-14-1) played without leading scorer Artemi Panarin, who’s day to day with an upper-body injury. He joined K’Andre Miller — who’s on injured reserve with an upper-body issue — on the sidelines. New York also scratched forward Kaapo Kakko and defenseman Victor Mancini, and shook up all four line combinations and two of the defense pairings trying to snap out of their long-running funk.
“I don’t even know how to describe the feeling right now,” Adam Fox said postgame. “It’s definitely not good. We talk, we talk as a group and say to just try and be engaged. It definitely wears on you when you’re in kind of a streak like this.”
Jonathan Quick start in goal and made 21 saves for the Rangers, one night after he replaced Igor Shesterkin early in the second period of a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
Pavel Buchnevich, Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas scored for the Blues, who are now 7-2-2 in their past 11 games. Joel Hofer finished with 26 saves, helping the Blues sweep the season series against the Rangers.
Related: Artemi Panarin misses games against Blues with upper-body injury
St. Louis Blues 3 – New York Rangers 2
The Rangers and Blues combined to play a largely low-event first period, after each team played Saturday and traveled to St. Louis afterward. There were only 15 combined shots on goal (8-7 in favor of the Rangers), 31 shot attempts (16-15 Rangers) and three high-danger scoring chances (2-1 Blues), per Natural Stat Trick.
Considering all of the tumult surrounding them, it was a decent road period for the Rangers. However, they were unable to reach the first intermission unscathed.
Buchnevich wired a one-timer past Quick’s glove at 18:51 of the first period to give the Blues a 1-0 lead. It was an excellent passing sequence by the Blues top line, and it had the Rangers scrambling. It ended with a neat seam pass by Jake Neighbors to Buchnevich, and the former Blueshirts forward extended his point streak to six games with his eighth goal of the season.
Prior to that goal, it was New York which had the best scoring chance of the first period. Fox drilled a shot on goal off a 2-on-1 short-handed rush with Mika Zibanejad, but Hofer was in position to make the key save at the nine-minute mark of the period.
Quick did make a couple solid saves, too. He denied Justin Faulk’s redirection off a gave-and-go at 12:46 and then made a terrific pad save on an Alexey Toropchenko tip in front at 17:10.
When the second period started, though, the Rangers reverted to the same kinds of defensive mistakes that are sabotaging their season. It took just 31 seconds into the period for a massive breakdown by the Rangers in their own end to allow Toropchenko to charge to the net untouched. Quick made an outstanding right-pad save, and then snuffed a rebound attempt again with the pad to keep it 1-0.
Less than a minute later, the Blues charged into the offensive zone on a 4-on-2 rush. The Rangers averted disaster there only by good fortune — the Blues misfired on the final pass and didn’t generate a shot on goal.
AT 5:43, defenseman Philip Broberg somehow was allowed a clear lane to the net from left, and only another terrific save by Quick kept that shot out of the net.
The mistakes kept coming, though, for the Rangers, and it finally cost them at 6:33, when Kyrou picked the puck right off the stick of Ryan Lindgren at the blue line, broke in all alone and wristed a shot up and over Quick’s glove to make it 2-0. Kyrou now has six goals and 10 points in eight career games against the Rangers.
Just 41 seconds later, the Rangers caught another break when Thomas fired a shot off the post. Not to be denied, though, Thomas zipped a right-wing shot top shelf off the rush to make it 3-0 St. Louis at 10:28. This one was a 2-on-1 when Zac Jones was caught up ice after Alexis Lafreniere’s errant pass at the other end sent the Blues flying up ice.
The Rangers ended up out-shooting the Blues 11-7 in that second period, but really there was little pushback after they fell behind 3-0. It’s hard to find an example of Hofer being severely challenged. In fact the Rangers did not record a high-danger chance in the second period, and the Blues had five.
It was more of the same in the third period until Berard pounced on a loose puck after a Vincent Trocheck shot was blocked. Berard skated with speed to left wing and his quick shot snuck past a surprised Hofer short side at 10:18. Berard’s second goal in eight games since being recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League not only made it 3-1 and it woke the Rangers up.
Cuylle made it 3-2 with his 11th goal at 11:37, off a pretty feed from Lafreniere. And all of a sudden, the game’s complexion took a sharp turn.
The Blues used their timeout right then and there, but the Rangers had jump in their game, though did not generate any Grade A scoring chances. The Rangers then pulled Quick for a sixth attacker with 2:33 remaining in regulation, and shortly thereafter Chris Kreider had a good left-wing chance through traffic, which Hofer gloved down. Lafreniere had a shot swallowed up by Hofer with 1:15 left. But that was it. There were no m ore shots on goal, and the comeback fell short.
Now, following a day off Monday, the Rangers return to action Tuesday when they visit the Nashville Predators in a battle of two of the most disappointing teams in the NHL this season.
