Miller scores in OT again, Rangers defeat Blues

ST. LOUIS -- J.T. Miller scored at 2:21 of overtime to give the New York Rangers a 2-1 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

Miller got a puck in the high slot and beat Jordan Binnington with a wrist shot on New York's first shot of the overtime after taking a pass from Vincent Trocheck.

The Rangers captain scored his third overtime goal of the season and second in six days after getting the game-winner in a 5-4 win against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.

“Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t,” Miller said. “I feel like I’ve had some success in previous years in overtime. Today was kind of a weird one. I was pretty tired out there and they had a little breakdown in their coverage and Vince made a [heck] of a play. Tried to shoot the puck a little bit and it’s nice to get off the schneid a little bit.”

Gabe Perreault scored his first NHL goal, and Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves for the Rangers (17-15-4), who won for the second time in seven games (2-3-2).

“Obviously there was momentum swings on both sides,” New York coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought the first two periods we were the better team. I thought they were the better team in the third period. They pushed, they elevated their intensity in the third. I thought they controlled territory in the third, but I thought in the first and second, it was the other way around.”

Jonatan Berggren scored his first goal in two games with St. Louis, and Binnington made 29 saves for the Blues (13-15-8), who are 0-6 in overtime this season, and 0-8 including shootouts.

“We’re not creating enough chances in 3-on-3 offensively,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said, “And we have a lot of possession time, but when we turn it over, we are blowing covers. It’s man-on-man, it should be fairly simply to stay with your man when there’s 3-on-3 versus 5-on-5, but we’re getting beat to our net, we’re losing assignments, we’re getting slipped to the middle of the ice.

“The game-winning goal, the guy walks down the middle of the ice. Someone lost his man on the boards. That’s what happened. It’s happened in at least four of the losses, and some of them have just been the other team making some high-end plays. We haven’t made those same plays.”

Berggren made it 1-0 at 18:58 of the first period after the Blues forced a turnover in the right corner of the offensive zone. Berggren picked up the loose puck and beat Shesterkin from a sharp angle off the short side cross bar and in.

“I’m lucky it went in and nice to get the first one pretty early,” Berggren said.

Montgomery put Berggren, claimed off waivers from the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday, on the top line in the third period with Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich.

“It looked really good in the third, and we’ll probably give it a look next game,” Montgomery said. ‘There’s a big difference when you start a game with people. There just is. Sometimes in games, you catch fire. To be able to sustain it, we’re going to see if we can sustain it, but it did look good.”

Perreault tied it 1-1 at 6:02 of the second period at the end of a power play when Will Cuylle’s shot from the edge of the left circle caromed off Perreault’s skate and in for his first goal in nine NHL games.

“I was happy for Gabe,” Sullivan said. “I thought he played a good game. He made some plays. He goes to the net on that one. Good things happen when you go to the net. It was a good play all around. Will puts it on the net. It’s kind of a fly-by screen, it hits him off the skate I think. There’s a lot of goals being scored around the league like that. It’s a great lesson from all of that I think we can take from it.”

NOTES: Rangers forward Artemi Panarin missed his first game this season with illness. … Miller scored his 17th career overtime goal, which surpassed Max Pacioretty for the most by a United States-born player. … New York has an NHL-leading 13 road wins. … St. Louis has allowed a League-leading 49 goals in the second period; the Rangers are tied for allowing the fewest (23). … Blues defenseman Colton Parayko moved into sole possession of fifth place in all-time games played with 759, passing Alex Pietrangelo.