The Rangers overcame the silence — and the noise.
A day which opened with new head coach Mike Sullivan attributing some of the team’s early-season scoring struggles to the “noise” created by the media — then featured the league’s worst home team quieting its crowd while being held scoreless for nearly 30 minutes — eventually ended with the Rangers erasing an early deficit and their season-worst four-game losing streak by claiming a 3-2 win over the Blues at Madison Square Garden.
After picking up their second home win of the season, the Rangers (11-11-2) head to Carolina to face the Eastern Conference-leading Hurricanes on Wednesday.
“We had to bounce back, especially at home,” said defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who had two assists. “That’s important.”
Entering the game ranked 30th in the NHL in scoring — and having been outshot 137-79 during their losing streak — the Rangers scored more than one goal for just the third time in 10 home games, while scoring each goal in five-on-five play.
In the previous five games, the Rangers averaged one such goal per game.
The Rangers celebrate a goal during their Nov. 24 win against the Blues. Jason Szenes for the NY Post
“We weren’t trading chance for chance or opening the game up and giving up a ridiculous amount of high-quality looks,” Sullivan said. “You play the game the right way and you can create your offense through your defense. When you chase offense, sometimes it turns into a high-risk, reckless game. It’s hard to win that way. We talk with them a lot about just taking what the game gives them. … We want them to trust their instincts, but there’s also an element of discipline in taking care of the puck in the critical areas of the rink. It’s an important aspect of being hard to play against. Sometimes you see NFL quarterbacks throw the ball in the stands. There’s a reason for it.
“I thought the last week or so, whether it was conscious or subconscious — and I understand to a certain extent because there’s been a whole lot of noise around the fact that we haven’t scored as many goals as expected — I think we had a tendency to [press] and I don’t think it helped us. No. 1, we didn’t get any more offense out of it, and we certainly gave up a whole lot more, and that’s the conversation we had the last couple of days.”
Though the Rangers generated more early opportunities, the Blues landed the first blow on Dylan Holloway’s rocket wrister past Igor Shesterkin (20 saves), putting St. Louis up 1-0 with 2:24 left in the first period.
The second period opened with silence, growing more awkward by the minute.
The organist’s efforts to awaken the crowd were futile.
The fans had seen this show before, continuing with just two shots through the first nine minutes of the period.
But the Rangers finally broke through when Jonny Brodzinski delivered a backhand feed to a streaking Vincent Trocheck, who evened the game with his fourth goal of the season with 9:54 left in the second period.
Just 40 seconds into the third period, Gavrikov fired a shot to the net, which was deflected in by Alexis Lafrenière for his fifth goal of the season.
Igor Shesterkin (r.) watches the puck during the Rangers’ Nov. 25 win over the Blues. Jason Szenes for the NY Post
Then, with 11:04 left in the third period, Gavrikov delivered a pretty backhand pass from behind the net, setting Adam Edstrom up for an easy finish in front to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead.
But this season, nothing comes easy.
After killing a four-minute double minor — including 1:10 of 6-on-4 play — on a high-sticking penalty by call-up Brett Berard, the Rangers surrendered a goal to Pavel Buchnevich with 1:15 remaining.
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Soon enough, the horn sounded.
And the Garden exhaled.
“It wasn’t perfect by any stretch,” Sullivan said. “But I thought our intentions were in the right place.”