Will Cuylle scored twice and Brett Berard had an assist in his NHL debut, but that wasn’t enough for the New York Rangers, who lost their third straight game, 5-2 to the St. Louis Blues on Monday at Madison Square Garden.
The three-game losing streak is a season high for the Rangers (12-7-1), who returned home from a 2-2-0 road trip which ended with losses to the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers.
The Blues (10-12-1) out-shot the Rangers 43-29, the third straight game New York surrendered 40 or more shots on goal.
“I think we’re just giving up too many chances now,” Rangers forward Alexis Lafreniere said. ” We didn’t get a lot and we just gave up too many chances.”
Zack Bolduc scored his first two goals of the season for St. Louis, which won in Jim Montgomery’s debut as Blues coach. Montgomery was hired Sunday — just five days after being fired by the Boston Bruins. He replaced the fired Drew Bannister.
Brayden Schenn had a goal and an assist, Jordan Kyrou also scored for the Blues, and Joel Hofer finished with 27 saves.
Igor Shesterkin made 38 saves for the Rangers, who played without forwards Chris Kreider and Filip Chytil, each of whom has an upper-body injury.
“I don’t know if there is anything good you can find from tonight,” Artemi Panarin said.
St. Louis Blues 5 – New York Rangers 2
The teams traded leads over the first two periods and arrived at the second intermission tied 2-2. And at the final buzzer of the second period there was a skirmish which involved several players, and ultimately the respective goalies, Shesterkin and Hofer.
Cuylle and Matt Rempe were involved wrestling with several Blues players, including Jake Neighbors, in the St. Louis end of the ice after the buzzer. Then as the players were separated, the goalies looked to exit, passed each other at center ice, clipped skates, had words and had to be separated.
Cuylle and Neighbors were assessed unsportsmanlike conduct minors, and Rempe was chuckling when Shesterkin came off the ice.
Each goalie could’ve used some rest more than an altercation at that point of the game. The Blues peppered Shesterkin with 30 shots through 40 minutes, 15 in each period. The Rangers had 23 against Hofer.
Among all those saves were one each by Shesterkin and Hofer that hit their facemask. In fact, Shesterkin had to change masks in the second period when a bar on his face mask was bent by a shot. Hofer was nailed square by a Braden Schneider right-point shot and recovered to make a sharp-pad save against Vincent Trocheck late in the second.
Cuylle opened the scoring at 8:47 of the first period when Kaapo Kakko’s bouncing pass/shot deflected off his skate and between Hofer’s pads. Kyrou answered back with his seventh goal three minutes later, a one-timer near the right circle after the Rangers turned the puck over behind their own net.
Artemi Panarin’s redirection 1:50 into the second period when he was driving to the net hit the post, and less than than three minutes later the Blues took a 2-1 lead. After a relentless shift in the offensive zone and three big-time saves by a scrambling Shesterkin, the Blues scored when Bolduc chipped a rebound into the net at 4:30.
Shesterkin made another series of terrific saves to keep the deficit at one after Bolduc’s goal. That paid off at 7:20 when Cuylle scored his second of the night, ninth of the season and fourth in the past four games. The 22-year-old had a gaping net to zip the puck into after a slick Mika Zibanejad pass.
But what got the play started after a strong Cuylle forecheck was Berard’s wraparound attempt that was stopped by Hofer, but pulled the goalie away from the net. The rebound popped out to Zibanejad, who quickly dished to the wide-open Cuylle.
Berard’s parents jumped to their feet and high-fived after the game-tying goal, knowing that their son had just picked up his first NHL point with a secondary assist.
“It was awesome to have family and friends here,” Berard said. “Just tried to build off the positive shifts and learn from it.”
Before the period ended and the short sideshow commenced, Shesterkin made a sensational right-pad save to rob Brandon Saad from the low slot.
With Cuylle and Neighbors in the penalty box to begin the third period, the teams skated 4-on-4, and the Blues took advantage. Schenn snuck behind Zibanejad to score off the rush at 1:12 to make it 3-2 in favor of the Blues. Schenn beat Shesterkin from the top of the left circle, short side, for his fourth goal of the season.
The Blues had an excellent chance to extend their lead after Rempe bulldozed Neighbors at 3:44 and was sent off for roughing since the puck was nowhere near the St. Louis forward. But the Rangers did a good job killing off the penalty.
However, Bolduc’s second goal followed soon thereafter and the Blues took a 4-2 lead. After the Blues won several board battles, Colton Parayko’s point shot was blocked in front of Shesterkin, but Bolduc swooped in from the wing to bury the rebound at 8:25.
Bolduc nearly completed the hat trick at 12:55 on a breakaway, but Shesterkin denied him.
Former Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich scored an empty-net goal with 2:45 remaining and Shesterkin on the bench for an extra attacker to make it 5-2.
Before outscoring the Rangers 3-0 in the third period, the Blues had been outscored 29-17 in that frame this season.
Just 7-7-0 in their past 14 games, the Rangers look to end their three-game skid when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh on Wednesday.
