Brayden Schenn scored the tiebreaking goal with 10:04 remaining in the third period, and the surging St. Louis Blues extended their winning streak to eight games with a 3-1 victory over the host New York Rangers Tuesday night.
St. Louis tied its season high with an eighth straight win in a tight-checking game that had few scoring chances for both teams.
Schenn scored for the fifth straight game and reached 25 goals for the fourth time in his career by scoring on a fluky play.
Jaden Schwartz passed the puck from the right corner to Schenn, who was positioned behind the net. Schenn moved around and centered the puck but Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev was out of position and the puck banked off his left skate.
Colton Parayko had a power-play goal in the second period and an assist as St. Louis also moved three points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche in the Central Division. Schwartz added an empty-net goal with six seconds left.
St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington made 25 saves and posted his sixth straight victory. He preserved the one-goal lead by making a point-blank stop on Ryan Strome with about a minute left and then smothered the puck with 16 seconds left to prevent Brendan Lemieux from getting a chance to score on a rebound.
Before St. Louis took the lead, Binnington preserved the tie with point-blank saves on Marc Staal and rookie Kaapo Kakko in the first five minutes of the third period.
Mika Zibanejad scored a power-play goal in the first period for the Rangers, who dropped their third straight game. New York remained four points behind idle Columbus for the second wild-card spot.
Georgiev finished with 19 saves.
Zibanejad made it 1-0 with 7:34 remaining when he dropped to one knee and one-timed Strome's cross-ice pass to the low slot past Binnington for his eighth goal in nine games. St. Louis tied the game 2:35 into the second when Zibanejad misplayed a clearing attempt and Parayko put a wrist shot from the left side over Georgiev's stick.
--Field Level Media
St. Louis | NY Rangers | |
Colton Parayko 2 | Points | Mika Zibanejad 1 |
Colton Parayko 1 | Goals | Mika Zibanejad 1 |
Colton Parayko 1 | Assists | Pavel Buchnevich 1 |
Colton Parayko 1 | Power Play Goals | Mika Zibanejad 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Jordan Binnington .962 | Save Percentage | Alexandar Georgiev .905 |
Jordan Binnington 25 | Saves | Alexandar Georgiev 19 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
St. Louis | 22 | 3 | 1-1 | 2-3 | 6 | 23 |
NY Rangers | 26 | 1 | 1-3 | 0-1 | 2 | 13 |