Rangers knock off St. Louis, snap skid
The St. Louis Blues had a chance to clinch a postseason berth on their own terms, but a stubborn goaltender stood in their way.
Alexandar Georgiev made 44 saves and Jimmy Vesey scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, helping the Rangers beat the Blues 4-2 on Friday night at the Garden.
Ryan Strome, Pavel Buchnevich and Chris Kreider also scored for New York, who had lost two in a row.
“We are not happy, we lost the game,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “That's the players' mindset. We want to win games. It was a winnable game and we didn't win it.”
Vladimir Tarasenko and David Perron scored for St. Louis, which still clinched a playoff spot when Arizona lost 3-2 in a shootout at Colorado later Friday night. Jordan Binnington stopped 21 shots in only his third regulation loss on the road this season.
Vesey found a loose puck during a scramble in front at 5:17 of the third to break the 2-2 tie. Brett Howden and Vinni Lettieri assisted on the play.
“I think it was big mentally, I've been in a little bit of a drought,” Vesey said after scoring his first goal since February 27th. “End of the year, you want to end on a high note and I think that goes for individually and as a team.”
Kreider, who missed the previous three games with a lower-body injury, added an empty-net goal with 8 seconds remaining to seal it for the Rangers.
Early in the second period, the Rangers erased a twogoal deficit with two of their own within a span of 1:20.
Strome notched his 17th of the season when he found a loose puck in front at 2:22 of the period. Mika Zibanejad helped tie it when he delivered a beautiful cross-ice feed to set up Buchnevich for a one-timer at 3:42. It was Buchnevich's seventh goal in the month of March and 19th on the season.
RED WINGS 4, DEVILS 0
DETROIT — Jonathan Bernier and Jimmy Howard combined for a shutout, Tyler Bertuzzi had a goal and two assists and the Detroit Red Wings topped the Devils for their fourth straight win.
Bernier made 21 saves in the first two periods before leaving with an upper-body injury. Howard stopped seven shots in the third period to complete the Red Wings' sixth victory in their last seven games.
Dylan Larkin had a goal and an assist, and Danny DeKeyser and Andreas Athanasiou also scored for Detroit.
DeKeyser gave Detroit a 1-0 lead with 6:22 left in the first period when he tipped in Larkin's pass past Mackenzie Blackwood for his fifth goal of the season.