The New York Rangers play the way they have to and beat the Blues 4-2

The New York Rangers are not the most talented team in the league, but when they put it all together and play the way they need to, they can win.

As the season winds down for the New York Rangers in a depressing fashion, it’s games like this that give hope to Ranger fans. The team played smart, they played hard, they crashed the net and got stellar goaltending.   It was a thrilling win after a horrific start.

If there is one characteristic that this team has, it’s a willingness to keep fighting and not back down.  The Rangers could have folded like a tent after the first period. Instead, they came back from a two goal deficit to take the lead and win.

After playing scoreless hockey for 14 minutes, the Blues scored two goals in 27 seconds.  The first was a goal Alexandar Georgiev would have wanted back as he didn’t hug the post and gave Vladimir Tarasenko enough space to squeeze the puck into the net.  The second goal was off a defensive breakdown with David Perron left wide open and alone in front of the next for a gimme.  Both Ranger defensemen were guilty of chasing the puck carrier and Chris Kreider didn’t come back and check Perron.

Less than two minutes later Mika Zibanejad scored a goal to pull within a goal.  Unfortunately, Brendan Smith had made contact with St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington just before the shot and the Blues challenged the goal and it was overturned on goalie interference.

So, the first period ended with the Rangers down 2-0, with a goal disallowed despite an 11-10 shot advantage.

The never say die Rangers came right back, scoring two goals in the first four minutes of the second period to tie the game.  The first goal was by Ryan Strome, his fourth goal in the last five games.  It came off a scramble in front of the net as Strome poked home a loose puck

The goal was inexplicably scored as unassisted, though it was clearly a rebound on a Vlad Namestnikov shot.   Strome keeps going to the net and scoring.  He keeps this up and he will have a long future in a Ranger uniform.

A little over a minute later, Pavel Buchnevich scored on a great sequence that was started when Kreider to the puck loose to Mika Zibanejad who sent to the streaking Buchnevich who slammed it home.

The scored remained tied until 5:47 of the third period.  Vinni Lettieri, Brett Howden and Jimmy Vesey all pursued the puck into the Blues zone and all three players had a shot with Vesey finally getting the rebound into the net.

It was a very timely goal and trailing by a goal, the Blues forced their shots.

Chris Kreider wrappped up the scoring with an empty net goal right after Buchnevich missed a wide open empty net opportunity.

It was Kreider’s 27th goal of the season, his first goal in over a month. 4-2 Rangers.

Now for the bad news.  To describe the Rangers’ defensive effort as loose would be an understatement.  Alexandar Georgiev finished with 44 saves and the Blues had an inordinate number of cringe inducing shots from the slot over the last two periods.

The Rangers scored three goals in the last two periods despite being outshot 36 to 15.  In fact, St. Louis had 70 shots with 46 ending up on goal.  It was a barrage.

Georgiev had another spectacular game, despite giving up the soft first goal.  He definitely followed the formula we have seen from Henrik Lundqvist for years.  Spectacular goaltending backing up a limited offense.

The Rangers did themselves no favors in the lottery race, but you can certainly not accuse this team of giving up.