It wasn’t pretty, but the New York Rangers came away with a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.
Going into this matchup, the Rangers had lost two consecutive games while only scoring one goal in the process.
Mike Sullivan’s response was to call up Gabe Perreault and Brennan Othmann from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League, who both slotted into the lineup.
Despite a strong first period where the Rangers led 10-5 in shots and dominated possession time for the most part, an offensive zone turnover led to a goal from Jonatan Berggren, putting the Blueshirts in an early 1-0 hole.
The Rangers came out aggressive in the second period, and on the power play, Will Cuylle took a shot that deflected off of Perreault’s foot for his first career NHL goal.
“I kind of blacked out,” Perreault said about his goal. “Pretty lucky one, but feels good to get the first one.”
After 40 minutes, the Rangers held a 25-15 edge in shots and felt they were outplaying the Blues.
“I thought for the first two periods, we did a really good job,” Sullivan said. “I thought we were playing on top of them. We established a lot of offensive zone time.”
The Rangers’ game began to falter in the third period.
St. Louis began dictating the pace of play, creating multiple high-quality scoring chances, which put the Rangers on their heels for the majority of the final frame.
It was the heroics of Igor Shesterkin that helped the Rangers escape into overtime. Shesterkin made 11 critical saves down the stretch, and when the Blueshirts broke down defensively, their superstar goalie was there to bail them out.
“It’s great,” J.T. Miller said of having Igor Shesterkin in net. “We talk about it all the time, it’s such a luxury to have. Even when it’s Quick in there, we are so lucky to have those guys, and obviously total confidence in them. It was on display again tonight.”
Shesterkin made 26 saves on the night, and his performance left Blues head coach Jim Montgomery nothing but impressed.
"Shesterkin's an elite goaltender in this league,” Montgomery said. “He showed that tonight.”
In overtime, Miller buried the game-winning goal to propel the Rangers to a hard-fought victory.
Miller has recorded three overtime goals this season, joining Tomas Sandstrom, Adam Graves, and Marian Gaborik as the only Rangers players to accomplish this feat.
“It's good for the confidence,” Miller said of his three overtime goals. “Last couple weeks, I feel like my games there. I don't think it's kind of back to the same as the beginning of the year. It's like not getting as much as I'd like, I think, on the scoresheet. But I got to believe that if you just play like that most games than not over the course of the season, good things will happen. Just try to be confident.”
Adam Fox Returns To Practice For The First Time Since Suffering Injury
It appears as if Adam Fox is making strides in his recovery from an upper-body injury.
While this performance certainly wasn’t anything to write home about, Sullivan was pleased with the way his team played, specifically from the standpoint of playing with the right intentions in the offensive zone.
“I thought our intentions as far as getting to the net front, getting inside a little bit more was better tonight,” Sullivan emphasized. “I thought we had more looks just by getting inside and trying to create off the shot. I do think the guys are listening in that regard, just trying to create more off the shot.”
The Rangers will be back in action on Saturday afternoon against the Philadelphia Flyers.