Schenn, Blues beat Rangers in OT
Brayden Schenn’s wrister from the right circle at 1:02 of overtime gave the St. Louis Blues a critical 4-3 win over the visiting New York Rangers on Saturday night at Scottrade Center.
After goalie Jake Allen stopped Chris Kreider’s point-blank bid for a game-winner, Schenn tallied his 25th goal off a pass from Alex Pietrangelo, who earned his third point of the night. The result gave the Blues 81 points, three points out of the last playoff spot in the Western Conference with 11 games left.
St. Louis forced overtime with Pietrangelo’s second marker of the night at 5:15 of the third period. His blast from the right point clipped a defender’s stick and beat screened goalie Alexandar Georgiev for his 14th of the season.
St. Louis dominated the first period of a must-win game, outshooting New York 16-2, and cashed in its territorial advantage at 15:49 with a Pietrangelo goal. Vladimir Sobotka tried a point shot that deflected off a defender and then Tage Thompson. Pietrangelo collected the loose puck in the slot and fired a wrister past Georgiev.
The Rangers equalized at 42 seconds of the second period with a good bounce that netted Mika Zibanejad his 23rd marker. Jesper Fast tried a wrister from a bad angle near the goal line at the right boards, and it struck Zibanejad on its way past Allen.
Nikita Soshnikov tallied his first goal just 1:42 later to restore a one-goal lead for the Blues, taking a drop pass from Chris Thorburn and wiring a wrister from the top of the right circle over Georgiev’s glove.
New York used two goals in less than 2 1/2 minutes to earn its first lead, an edge it carried into the third period. Mats Zuccarello tied it with his 15th at 12:07 off a wild scramble at the goalmouth, taking a couple of whacks at the puck and getting a faint piece on his second try. The puck trickled past Allen.
Zibanejad made it 3-2 on the power play at 14:34, making no mistake with a beautiful blind backhand pass across the goal mouth by Chris Kreider.
Allen finished with 17 saves and Georgiev made 29 stops.
—Field Level Media