Lundqvist, Shattenkirk help Rangers defeat Blues

ST. LOUIS -- Henrik Lundqvist made 39 saves for the New York Rangers in a 2-1 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Monday.

Boo Nieves scored the tiebreaking goal in the second period, and Mats Zuccarello scored for New York (17-14-7), which has won two straight for the first time since winning three in a row Nov. 17-21.
"Intense. It was fun. It was to fun battle," Lundqvist said. "As a goalie, when you feel the guys battle as hard as they do, you get excited. You want to play even harder. You want to make that extra save.
"We worked so hard and we came up with the big plays at the end and at the right time. That wins you a lot of games in this league."
WATCH: [All Rangers vs. Blues highlights]
Ryan O'Reilly scored, and Jake Allen made 21 saves for St. Louis (15-18-4), which has lost two in a row.
St. Louis has scored two goals the past two games on 153 shot attempts.
"It (stinks)," O'Reilly said. "You've got to put the puck in the net, especially the power play too. We've got to find a way to bury something.
"We shot a lot of pucks, and for myself, I had a lot of opportunities and made stupid plays, and not goal-scoring plays and play-making plays, just throwing it at the net at dumb times when I've got to create more. We had [offensive]-zone time, we had chances, but sometimes, for myself, I've got to make higher-end plays than just shoveling them at the net."

The Blues outshot the Rangers 31-5 in the final 35:25.
"At the end of the day, you've got to find a way to get two points," New York coach David Quinn said. "There are a whole different bunch of ways to do it, and we got it because we've got a great goalie. I thought we played really well for 25 minutes, then we get up 2-1, and we acted like it was 9-1. Give them a lot of credit. They came hard and gave us a lot of problems. But we also created some of our own problems."
Nieves put the Rangers up 2-1 at 3:11 of the second period. Kevin Shattenkirk had an assist in his first game returning from a shoulder injury. It was the defenseman's first game in St. Louis since he was traded to the Washington Capitals on Feb. 27, 2017 after playing seven seasons for the Blues.

O'Reilly's Blues-leading 15th goal at 10:08 of the first period gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead. Zuccarello tied it 1-1 at 19:40 on the power play, the seventh time in eight games the Blues have allowed a power-play goal.

They said it

"That's Henrik being Henrik. When you've got a goalie like that, he can cover up a lot of your mistakes and he definitely did tonight." -- Rangers forward Chris Kreider

"It's tough. It's frustrating. Chances are there, but it's not going in. We're just in a bit of a dry spell right now. It's not for a lack of effort or chances, they're just not going in." -- Blues forward Jaden Schwartz

Need to know

Lundqvist has 443 NHL wins, two from tying Terry Sawchuk for sixth all-time (Sawchuk had 171 ties). ... Rangers forward Kevin Hayes had a nine-game point streak end (five goals, 11 assists). ... Kreider has eight points in a five-game point streak (five goals, three assists). ... The Blues were 0-for-4 on the power play and were 3-for-32 in December (13 games). ... The Blues' 11 regulation home losses are tied for most in the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings and Arizona Coyotes.

What's next

Rangers: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN)
Blues: Host the Washington Capitals on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; SN360, SNE, FS-MW, NBCSWA, NHL.TV)