In New York, the visiting St Louis Blues dropped a 4-2 decision to the Rangers on Friday night.
The loss was not completely defeating, the Blues secured a playoff spot when the Arizona Coyotes lost to the Colorado Avalanche in the skills competition.
Jimmy Vesey scored game-winner for Rangers – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“Whatever way it comes, I think anytime you make the playoffs it’s pretty special,” St. Louis’ David Perron said. “At the same time, (at) the start of the year it’s what we expected of ourselves, so it’s nice to be in whenever we get in.”
The Blues dropped to 41-28-8 with the loss.
It started off well enough with St Louis grabbing a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals just 27 seconds apart.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Perron scored in the opening frame to seemingly take control of the game.
But the Rangers responded with four straight goals over the second and third periods.
“We found a way to win,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “Obviously our goalie had a lot to do with it and we got a timely goal in the third period.”
After those two goals in the first, Rangers’ goalie Alexandar Georgiev settled down and made 44 saves to get the win.
“Scoring first, getting the momentum, feeling confident and we just kind of let that guard down,” St. Louis center Ryan O’Reilly said. “We thought they’d kind of go away, but they’re just a team that keeps skating, waiting for bounces and jumping in the rush every time. We just gave them too much.”
Ryan Strome and Pavel Buchnevich scored early in the middle frame to te the game at 2-2.
“The last game I played, we were leading 2-0 and we lost that one,” Georgiev said. “So I knew we could come back just like that too. Just have to stay with it.”
Jimmy Vesey broke the tie at 5:47 of the third for the game-winner.
“To be able to dust yourself off and perform the way he did certainly is a great sign from a mental perspective,” Quinn said of Georgiev. “But I think he’s been doing that all year. I think he’s shown mental toughness and the ability to shake off anything that happens that doesn’t go his way.”
Chris Kreider added an empty-net goal with under seven seconds left in the game.
[WATCH: All Blues vs. Rangers highlights]
Jordan Binnington made 21 saves in the loss.
“We certainly had plenty of chances,” Perron said. “You look at the shot attempts, we were around 75. We had more shots on net (46) than they had even attempts (43). We did a lot of good things and we let them back in the game for no reason.”
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