Rangers fall in OT
ST. LOUIS — Any fans hoping for a full-on Rangers tank to get a high draft pick haven’t been getting their wish lately.
Saturday night, though, the Blueshirts blew a third-period lead to the Blues to lose in overtime, 4-3. By getting one point, however, the Rangers (32-32-8) jumped Carolina in the standings and are outside the bottom-10 in the NHL.
The Rangers, who are 5-2-2 since the trade deadline, were outshot 16-2 during the first period, about three-quarters of which was spent in their own zone.
“We followed the master plan in the first period: Tire them out in our own end,” Alain Vigneault said with straight-faced gallows humor. “Our (defensemen) couldn’t make a pass and our forwards couldn’t get through the neutral zone.”
Alexandar Georgiev, making his third straight start, stopped 29 of 32 shots in regulation before Brayden Schenn scored 1:02 into overtime.
Mika Zibanejad scored twice for the second straight game, marking the first time in his career he’s scored multiple goals in consecutive contests. He has seven points in his last three games and 10 points in his last six games — which proceeded a stretch of four points (all goals) in 16 games.
The Blues tied the game 3-3 at 5:15 of the third on a power-play goal, Alex Pietrangelo’s second tally of the night.
Zibanejad’s power-play goal at 14:34 of the second off a no-look, backhand pass from Chris Kreider gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead. His first goal came 42 seconds into the second, Jesper Fast’s shot from the half-wall deflecting off Zibanejad to tie the game at 1. St. Louis regained the lead less than two minutes later on a Nikita Soshnikov goal. Mats Zuccarello tied it up again at 12:07. USA TODAY