ST. LOUIS (AP) The St. Louis Blues got a much-needed two points against the New York Rangers. They hope they haven’t lost leading scorer Vladimir Tarasenko in the process.
Brayden Schenn scored 1:02 into overtime, Alex Pietrangelo had two goals in regulation and the St. Louis Blues came back to beat the New York Rangers 4-3 on Saturday night. But Tarasenko played just 7 minutes, 53 seconds of the first period and left the ice following his last shift of the period with what the team called an upper-body injury. He did not return to the Blues bench to begin the second period.
Coach Mike Yeo said no update will be given until Sunday morning before the team plays at Chicago.
“There’s not much to react to at the time,” Blues forward Alexander Steen said. “We needed the two points and we regrouped in both intermissions and just talked about what we could focus on and we’ll have a look at it now and see where it’s at.”
Nikita Soshnikov also scored for the Blues, who won their third game in their last four. Jake Allen made 17 saves as St. Louis moved within three points of idle Dallas and Colorado for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
“Season’s on the line really,” Schenn said. “We’ve got games in hand. We’ve got to grab two points whenever we can down the stretch.”
Mika Zibanejad scored twice for Rangers, earning his third multigoal game of the season. Mats Zuccarello also scored, Chris Kreider had a pair of assists and Alexandar Georgiev made 29 saves for New York, which had won its previous two games.
It was the first time this season the Rangers lost when entering the third period with the lead.
Pietrangelo tied the game at 5:15 of the third period with a power-play goal. Pietrangelo’s 14th tied his career season high, set last year.
“Just get the puck to the net,” Pietrangelo said. “(Steen) did a great job there and (Jaden Schwartz) giving me a lane to shoot. It’s a good job by them when they’re in front of the net it’s easy to see the back of the net and I just found the hole.”
The Rangers came alive after a lackluster opening period, scoring three times in the second to take a 3-2 lead.
Zibanejad got it going 42 seconds into the second, deflecting Jesper Fast‘s shot to tie it at 1. But St. Louis regained the lead on Soshnikov’s first goal with the Blues at 2:24 when Chris Thorburn carried the puck into the Rangers zone and dropped it back to Soshnikov for a one-timer.
“They’re a good team and we talked about that before,” Zibanejad said. “I thought we worked ourselves back into the game and it was unfortunate not to come up with the two points there.”
Zuccarello tied it at 2 when he took advantage of a lucky bounce with 7:53 left in the second, chipping the puck past Allen after his pass attempt bounced off of Alexander Steen’s stick right back him.
Zibanejad’s power play goal with 5:25 left in the second gave the Rangers a 3-2 advantage.
Pietrangelo gave the Blues a 1-0 lead with 4:11 left in the first period, scoring off of a rebound from Vladimir Sobotka‘s shot.
The Blues outshot the Rangers 16-2 in the first. Georgiev came up with several tough saves, including stopping Tarasenko on a 2-on-1 with Jaden Schwartz.
“Well, we followed the master plan in the first period: tire them out in our own end,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault joked.
NOTES: Both teams wore green warmup jerseys in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. The jerseys will be auctioned off to benefit Urban Harvest and Blues for Kids. … It is the fourth straight game that the Rangers scored at least three goals. … The Rangers scratched C Peter Holland and D Tony Deangelo. The Blues scratched LW Scottie Upshall, D Jay Boumeester, D Jordan Schmaltz, C Oskar Sundqvist and G Carter Hutton.
UP NEXT
Rangers: Host Columbus on Tuesday.
Blues: Travel to Chicago on Sunday.
