New York Rangers steal their second win in a row vs. the St. Louis Blues 2-1

The New York Rangers started 2018 with a dramatic win over Buffalo at Citifield in the Winter Classic.  They ended the year the same way , stealing a 2-1 road win over the St. Louis Blues.  They started the year with playoff aspirations and they finished the year with the same mindset.

The first period belonged to the New York Rangers.  They controlled play, helped by two power plays. But of course, the Blues got on the board first when Ryan O’Reilly scored on a pass from David Perron.  It was the fourth shot on goal by St. Louis and Henrik Lundqvist was partially screened on O’Reilly’s shot from the slot. Then Adam McQuaid took a holding the stick penalty and it didn’t look good for New York. Things changed at 18:18 when Tony DeAngelo had the puck at the blue line, but instead of taking the shot, he stickhandled towards the next  and was tripped by Oskar Sundqvist.

The five-forward Ranger power play unit took over and controlled play in the Blues zone and finally scored with only 20 seconds left in the period.

Zuccarello took the pass from Chris Kreider and one-timed it past Jake Allen. It was a big goal at an opportune time, sending the Blueshirts to their lockerroom tied 1-1.  They outshot the Blues 14-7 and outhit them 7-3.  The much maligned Allen was forced to make several tough saves including two on Brett Howden who is snakebit.

The Rangers got into penalty trouble when Kreider was called for interference 16 seconds into the second period.  He basically ran into Brayden Schenn and was called for interference, an iffy call.

After killing the penalty the Rangers had a three on one with Kreider coming out of the penalty box. Jimmy Vesey made a marvelous pass to Kreider who one-timed the shot, right into Allen’s pads.

3:11 into the period, the fourth line got on the scoreboard.  It came right after Robby Fabbri hit a post, Boo Nieves broke into the zone and put a backhand past Allen with Cody McLeod in front of the net.

Of course, it was Nieves who sat out the Nashville game and was in the lineup replacing Filip Chytil.  And the assist went to Shattenkirk in his first game back.

The Rangers had to kill another penalty when DeAngelo was called for hooking Vladimir Tarasenko in a scrum in front of the net.  It was the Lundqvist show in that penalty kill as he made four tough saves as St. Louis was buzzing the net.

The power play gave the Blues life and the Rangers couldn’t get out of their zone. During a TV timeout coach David Quinn laced into the team over their play.

Their effort improved, but the Blues controlled play the remainder of the period, including a late power play.  They ended up outshooting the Rangers 18-5 and the Rangers were lucky to get out of the second period unscathed.

The Blues continued their push in the third period, spending most of the period in the Rangers’ zone. The Rangers played disciplined defense and kept the Blues on the perimeter and it was hard for St. Louis to get a shot.  Then came the last ten minutes of the game.

To describe the last ten minutes of the third period as chaotic would be an understatement. The Blues ended up outshooting the Rangers in the third period 14-3, but it was much more than that.  The last Ranger shot on goal was by Zuccarello at 12:08.   The last attempted shot was also by Zuccarello at 15:54.  After Jake Allen made that Zuccarello save, in the last eight minutes of the game the Blues had nine shots on goal and another six shots missed or blocked.  Lundqvist was at his finest and despite the pressure, the Rangers escaped with the win.