VICTORY BLUES: Gallant’s new lines work, as Rangers rally past St Louis.

With his team trailing late in the second period and his coach’s seat getting warmer, Gerard Gallant inevitably reshuffled his lines hoping to find a spark, for his team desperately needed a win. It worked for at least one night, as the Rangers saved their best for last and used a spirited three-goal third period en route to a 6-4 victory over the  St Louis Blues on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

The victory snapped a four-game home losing streak and allowed the players to lift their sticks and salute their adoring fans for the first time since November 13 against the Arizona Coyotes. “Our approach right now is every game is a must-win,” Chris Kreider said. “That approach is going to make us better. We’ve been talking about it and finding ways to lose. That builds in a lot of ways. But the challenge is leaving that behind and starting fresh. It’s up to us to be resilient, and we were resilient tonight.”

But at the outset, the Blues were dictating play, as they used their speed and took advantage of subpar Blueshirts passing to take an early lead in the shot count.

After Igor Shesterkin weathered the storm, New York struck first when Braiden Schneider took a cross-ice feed off the wall from Julien Gauthier and roofed it over Jordan Binnington to give the Rangers a much-needed 1-0 lead.

The momentum was short-lived, however, as St Louis returned the favor 50 seconds later when ex-Blueshirt Pavel Buchnevich took a puck off his body in the slot and poked one past a flailing Shesterkin to tie the game at one. Later in the frame, Jordan Kyrou hooked Jacob Trouba, giving the Blueshirts a power play.

Instead of holding onto the puck off the face-off and waiting for things to develop before looking for the patented Mika Zibanejad one-timer, the Rangers chose a different route. After Vincent Trocheck won the draw, Artemi found Adam Fox, whose point shot got through bodies in front and was impressively tipped in by Trocheck, who bookended the sequence to give New York a 2-1 advantage.

Looking for more, Gallant began the second period with his first unit consisting of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Jimmy Vesey on offense, and Ryan Lindgren and Adam Fox on defense. Still, the line fell asleep at the wheel, and the Blues only needed 12 seconds of elapsed period time to capitalize, as Vladamir Tarasenko jammed one home to square the score.

Luckily for the Rangers, the second line came to the rescue when Trouba found Panarin for a shot(I hope Monday’s game showed him he’s most effective when he shoots the puck) from the point that was tipped home by Trocheck for his second of the evening, putting his team in front 3-2.

Despite Alexis Lafreniere being boxed for holding Colton Parayko later in the frame, the Blueshirts had an opportunity to extend their lead when their other lottery prize Kaapo Kakko found himself alone on a breakaway. Still, although he beat Binnington, he couldn’t tuck it inside the right post and was denied on a glorified scoring opportunity. That missed chance would come back to haunt them, as Jordan Kyrou and Ryan O Reilly scored 91 seconds apart to give the Blues a 4-3 lead.

As the period wound down, fans wondered if Gallant would wait until the third to switch up his lines. But suddenly, Lafreniere and Kakko were skating with Mika Zibanejad on the top rope, while Kreider and Vesey were bumped to the third line with Barclay Goodrow as their center.

Alas, the switches fans and media members have been clamoring for as of late were made, and it was now time to see, as Rangers reporter Vince Mercogliano put it, “Whether the kids will sink or swim.”

When the teams hit the ice for the third period, the Rangers weren’t given the usual heroes welcome by fans, for most were still turned off from the previously dreadful frame and made their voices heard with a smattering of boos. But they cheered with 15:12 remaining when Lafreniere fed K’Andre Miller along the boards, who went from the right side to the top of the key and flung one at the net that sneaked under the right arm of Binnington to tie the score at four.

With the revamped first line buzzing, they were quickly back on the ice again and delivered. With 11:44 to go, Lafreniere forced a Justin Faulk turnover behind the net before redirecting a Zibanejad shot into the net to forge the Rangers ahead for good.

The Blues would have their chance to tie it once more, but Chris Kreider put a stop to that with a breakaway shorthanded goal to effectively seal the Blueshirts’ victory and send the jubilant crowd into a frenzy.

STAT SO?:

The Rangers improved to 3-0 all-time against the Blues on December 5, defeating them 5-1 in ST Louis in 1973 and 3-2 in 1987.

MARV’S 3 STARS:

3 K’Andre  Miller

The defenseman recorded his first goal of the season to tie the score at four in the third, and also recorded six hits, two blocks, had two takeaways, and was a +3 in approximately 23:30 minutes on ice. His moniker is “Key” for a reason, and he was a salient component of the Rangers’ comeback victory.

2 Vincent Trocheck

The NHL gave the first star to the 29-year-old center, and the reason he’s second in my eyes isn’t because of him, for I thought this was his best game in his first year as a Ranger. Entering Monday night as the league leader in posts(8), Trocheck received the puck luck he was looking for and drove the second-line play while flanked by Artemi Panarin and Vitali Kravtsov. His two net-front goals gave the Rangers the lead both times to go along with his assist on Adam Fox’s power-play goal. Trocheck has been inconsistent, but nights like Monday show what he’s capable of when it comes to living up to his 7X $5.625 million AAV contract.

1 Alexis Lafreniere 

Lafreniere picked up an assist on K’Andre Miller’s game-tying goal in the third period and netted the game-winner a few minutes later.

The two-point performance snapped a four-game scoring drought, but that’s not why he’s my first star. It’s because he stepped up when the team needed a boost in the third period, doing so with new linemates in Zibanejad and Kakko. He also switched sides from right to left, even if it was his strong side he was on in the third.

He’s up to four goals and eight assists through 27 games this season, and here’s to this one getting him going.