Kreider, Rangers rally to end Blues four-game win streak

NEW YORK --The New York Rangers rallied with three straight goals in the third period to defeat the St. Louis Blues 5-3 at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.

Patrik Nemeth tied it at 3-3 at 7:27 with his first goal of the season. Chris Kreider then scored his 35th goal, and NHL-leading 18th on the power play, to make it 4-3 at 11:40 before Artemi Panarin shot into an empty net at 18:08 for the 5-3 final.
Kreider's goal came after New York called a timeout to give their top power-play unit a chance to rest and stay on the ice.
"What was it, about 10 minutes left to go in the game, so we figured it was a good time to use the timeout and keep those guys out there, give them another chance," Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. "It worked."

Panarin had a goal and two assists, Adam Fox had three assists, and Igor Shesterkin made 13 of his 29 saves in the third period for New York (34-15-5), which had lost two straight and has not lost three in a row in regulation this season.
"There are going to be certain nights when you don't have it, but to be able to dig in and do whatever it takes to win hockey games, that's certainly easier when you have the best goalie in the world," Kreider said. "But at the same time, being able to find our game, being able to forget about a bad shift or a bad period, not letting it stack, not letting the frustration overcome, and not just going out there working to work, but starting to work hard and for each other and communicate, those are very important things and things we can build on."
Ryan O'Reilly and David Perron each had a goal and an assist, and Ville Husso made 24 saves for St. Louis (32-15-6), which had its four-game winning streak end and lost in regulation for the first time since Feb. 10 (6-0-1).
"They upped their intensity in the third and had us on our heels and ended up tying it, and then we took a costly penalty and they scored," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "We played two real good periods. We need to close that out."
O'Reilly said he thought the Blues came out nervous in the third period.
"We know they're a really good offensive team and we just got thinking a little bit too much instead of skating and supporting each other," he said. "They made us pay."

The Blues scored their three goals on three shots in a span of 2:14 late in the second.
O'Reilly got St. Louis within 2-1 at 17:30 with a one-timer off the rush from Brandon Saad. Barbashev scored 1:07 later to tie it 2-2, beating Shesterkin with a high shot to the far side from the left circle after getting behind Rangers defensemen K'Andre Miller and Jacob Trouba and taking Jordan Kyrou's pass off the left-wing boards.
Perron gave St. Louis a 3-2 lead at 19:44 off a pass from behind the net by O'Reilly.
"We just needed to get one to get some confidence and tilt the ice a bit," O'Reilly said. "We came wave after wave, got some good bounces and put the puck in the net. It left us in a good spot going into the third."
Gallant said he sensed disappointment and frustration from the Rangers in between the second and third periods.
"[It was] over basically falling asleep two and a half minutes," he said. "We were in control. They were the better team, don't get me wrong, but 2-0, we're in control of the game. If they get one you can live with that, that happens, but to give up three goals like that it was pretty discouraging."

Alexis Lafreniere's goal, his fifth in nine games, gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 8:55 of the first period.
Ryan Strome made it 2-0 at 16:36 of the second.
"It's a lesson for us," O'Reilly said. "I think we're a better team than them, I think we can beat them, and we just didn't have the full 60 that we needed to tonight."
NOTES:Rangers center Kevin Rooney sustained an upper-body injury and didn't return after playing six shifts totaling 5:26 in the first period. Gallant said he didn't have an update on Rooney after the game. … Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich had five shots on goal and was minus-2 in 18:51 of ice time in his first game against New York since they traded him to St. Louis on July 23. Buchnevich played his first five seasons in the NHL for the Rangers. … Kyrou has scored seven points (three goals, four assists) during a five-game point streak.