The Rangers overcame the noise.
Then, the silence.
A day which opened with new head coach Mike Sullivan attributing some of the team’s early-season struggles to the “noise” created by the media, and then featured the league’s worst home team quieting the home crowd while being held scoreless for nearly 30 minutes, eventually ended with the Rangers erasing an early deficit and their season-worst four-game losing streak by claiming a 3-2 win over the Blues on Monday at Madison Square Garden.
After picking up their second home win of the season, the Rangers (11-11-2) next head to Carolina to face the Eastern Conference-leading Hurricanes on Wednesday.
Entering the game ranked 30th in the NHL in scoring — and having been outshot 137-79 during their losing streak — the Rangers scored more than one goal for just the third time in 10 home games, scoring three five-on-five goals after producing five in the previous five games.
It was another typical start at the Garden for the Rangers, who recorded just two shots on goal in the game’s first eight minutes.
The Blues nearly jumped in front after Brayden Schenn got behind Adam Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov, but Igor Shesterkin (20 saves) turned away the breakaway.
The Rangers had fired twice as many shots (8-4) when the Blues uncorked the first landing blow, coming off a Dylan Holloway rocket wrister over Shesterkin’s glove, putting St. Louis up 1-0 with 2:24 left in the first period.
The second period opened with silence, growing more awkward by the minute.
The organist’s efforts to awaken the crowd were futile.
They had seen this show before.
“It could be [pressing],” Sullivan said before the game, attempting to explain the team’s offensive struggles. “There’s also a lot of noise around it. [The media] make[s] a lot of noise around it … It’s amazing how when you chase offense you don’t get as much. When you play the game the right way, you create offense.”
Through the first nine minutes of the second period, the Rangers had only put another two shots on net, but they finally broke through when Jonny Brodzinski delivered a backhand feed to a streaking Vincent Trocheck, who evened the game with 9:54 left in the second period.
It was Trocheck’s fourth goal of the season and second in the past four games.
Fox was credited with his team-best 17th assist.
St. Louis earned the game’s first power play two-plus minutes later, when Braden Schneider was whistled for high-sticking, but the Rangers killed the penalty.
The Blues followed with a flurry of close calls, forcing Shesterkin to don a cape and Fox to clear a loose puck in the crease.
Just 40 seconds into the third period, Vladislav Gavrikov — who shook off a second-period slap shot to the face that forced a stoppage of play — fired a shot to the net, which was deflected in by Alexis Lafrenière for his fifth goal of the season.
Adam Edstrom added insurance with his second goal of the season, finishing Gavrikov’s feed from behind the net with 11:04 remaining.
Call-up Brett Berard was called for a high-sticking double-minor with 5:51 to play.
The Rangers survived the four-minute disadvantage — including 1:10 of 6-on-4 play — but surrendered a goal to Pavel Buchnevich with 1:15 remaining.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
