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Gabe Perreault 1st NHL goal, J.T. Miller OT winner lift Rangers past Blues 2-1
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- Gabe Perreault 1st NHL goal, J.T. Miller OT winner lift Rangers past Blues 2-1
Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
Their game Thursday night at Enterprise Center wasn't exactly a pretty one. But it will be remembered fondly by the New York Rangers , who rallied for a 2-1 win against the St. Louis Blues , when Gabe Perreault scored his first NHL goal to tie it, and J.T. Miller finished it off 2:21 into overtime.
Miller's third overtime goal — a missile past Blues goalie Jordan Binnington — tied a franchise record for most in a season. He joined Tomas Sandstrom, Adam Graves, and Marian Gaborik as the only Rangers to do so.
The win was the League-leading 13th on the road for the Rangers (17-15-4), who came off consecutive losses at home earlier in the week. It was made possible when Perreault — playing his ninth NHL game, fourth this season, and first since he was recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League the day before — scored a power-play goal early in the second period to tie things up 1-1.
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Igor Shesterkin's fingerprints were all over this victory, too. The Rangers goalie made up for a rare stickhandling gaffe that put his team in a 1-0 hole with 26 saves, including 12 in the third period and overtime.
Binnington stopped 28 of 30 shots for the Blues, who were playing on back-to-back nights after shutting out the Winnipeg Jets 1-0 on Wednesday. Jonatan Berggren scored their only goal Thursday, his first since the Blues claimed him off waivers from the Detroit Red Wings .
The Rangers nearly scored on the opening shift of the game, which would've been quite nice considering their season-long struggles to find the back of the net. Conor Sheary was one-on-one in tight against Binnington, and went backhand-forehand before the Blues goalie stuffed his shot.
A few shifts later, Sheary just missed Vincent Trocheck flying to the net with a spinning pass. But other than that, it was an extremely low-event first period for both teams.
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That is until the Blues capitalized on a Rangers turnover in their own end. Shesterkin handcuffed Vladislav Gavrikov with an outlet pass toward the left-wing boards. Not only couldn't the reliable Rangers defenseman handle the pass, he fell down, allowing Daliber Dvorsky to push the puck to Berggren. With a 3-on-1 down low, Berggren rifled a shot over Shesterkin's shoulder at 18:58 to give the Blues a 1-0 lead, one they carried into the first intermission despite being out-shot 10-5.
St. Louis came within inches of doubling that lead on the opening shift of the second period. Alexey Toropchenko hopped on a rebound to the side of the Rangers net and sent a shot toward the empty cage. But Braden Schneider got his stick in the way at the last second to save what appeared to be a sure goal.
The Blues didn't generate many more opportunities the rest of the period, until a pair of late power plays. This was a largely a Rangers period; and even though they scored on just one of their 15 shots, it was a memorable goal.
With time winding down on their first power play, the Rangers tied the game at 6:02 when Perreault drove to the net and was in the right place at the right time when Will Cuylle's shot caromed off this skate and under Binnington's pad for his first NHL goal.
From there, the Rangers took it to the Blues, but couldn't beat Binnington, who was very sharp in the second period. He stoned Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad on point-blank looks on the same New York power play midway through the period, and later calmly turned aside Miller's blast off an odd-man rush.
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It was Shesterkin's turn to shine in the third period, when the Blues found their footing and out-shot the Rangers 11-4. But the best scoring chance of the period belonged to the Rangers.
With the clock ticking down to one-minute remaining in regulation, Miller skated hard toward the Blues net, took a bump, and slid into Binnington, bowling him over. The puck found the Rangers captain, but from his knees, Miller banked a shot off the post, and this one headed to overtime tied 1-1.
Given another prime opportunity, Miller didn't miss in overtime, burying a slick Trocheck feed to make for a happy flight home, where the Rangers host the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday afternoon.
Key takeaways after Rangers rally for 2-1 overtime win against Blues
Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
Memorable night for Gabe Perreault
Perreault's first NHL goal wasn't a snipe, nor a dazzling end-to-end rush, and not even a shot really. But the 20-year-old was rewarded for driving down the middle toward the net, showing he's not shy about going to difficult areas of the ice. The puck hit his skate and ended up in the net. There's plenty of time for far prettier goals in his future. So, the first one? It didn't matter how it looked.
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"Not the prettiest of goals, but good to get the first one," the 2023 first-round draft pick said on the MSG broadcast during the second intermission.
Perreault played on the third line centered by fellow rookie Noah Laba , who assisted on his goal, and Taylor Raddysh . The kid stood out early with a nice defensive play, picking off a pass after hustling back into his own end. Perreault was also part of a quick passing play, when he dished to Scott Morrow , who in turn found Sam Carrick cutting to the net at 4:07 of the second period. Carrick was tripped, drawing a penalty, and Perreault cashed in on the ensuing power play.
He logged 13:09 TOI, had three shot attempts, one shot on goal, and a tripping penalty in the offensive zone early in the second period. Safe bet that he stays in the lineup Saturday against the Flyers.
Brennan Othmann also rejoined Rangers lineup
Perreault wasn't the only recent Rangers first-round pick back in the lineup Thursday. The Rangers also recalled Brennan Othmann on Wednesday, and the 2021 first-rounder drew into the lineup on the fourth line with Carrick and Matt Rempe .
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Like Perreault, Othmann took a penalty in the offensive zone — a hooking minor — but unlike him, the 22-year-old didn't score his first NHL goal. But Othmann did come close. In his 27th NHL game, and second this season, Othmann had a prime chance 90 seconds after Perreault tied the game, but Binnington stoned him with a 1-on-1 stop.
That was his only shot on goal in 12 shifts and 7:14 TOI. Othmann also was credited with two hits.
Captain clutch
Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
Much is made about Miller's lack of production this season, and rightfully so. His 10 goals and 21 points in 34 games are a ways off from the point-per-game pace he played at the previous four seasons. But the 32-year-old center is Captain Clutch for the Rangers. So much so, that he's already in the record books for most OT goals in a season, and we're not even halfway through this one. Miller also has a shootout winner this season, so he pretty much owns the moment once the game moves past the 60-minute mark.
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"It's good for the confidence," Miller said postgame . "Last couple weeks, I feel like my game's there. I don't think it's kind of back to the same as the beginning of the year. It's like not getting as much as I'd like, I think, on the scoresheet. But I got to believe that if you just play like that most games than not over the course of the season, good things will happen. Just try to be confident."
Due in large part to Miller's heroics, the Rangers are 6-4 in overtime this season. As a side note, the Blues lost their eighth straight overtime game without a victory this season.
Artemi Panarin 'under the weather'
The Rangers played — and won — this one without their leading scorer. Artemi Panarin was "under the weather" and missed his first game of the season, and just his third since the start of the 2022-23 campaign.
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Perhaps this game was destined to be a low-scoring slog of an affair even if Panarin was in the lineup. After all, the Blues entered the game as the second-lowest scoring team in the NHL, and the Rangers were just two spots ahead of them. There were some good scoring chances on each side for sure, but there was plenty of low-event hockey as well. If you're the Rangers, though, it was a successful path to success, especially without Panarin on the ice.
Cuylle moved up and took Panarin's spot on a line with Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere 5v5. And Morrow, the rookie defenseman, replaced him on the first power-play unit, as coach Mike Sullivan moved away from the five-forward grouping
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