Derick Brassard, Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes scored in the first period, and the NY Rangers beat the St Louis Blues 6-3 on Thursday night for their seventh straight victory.
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The Rangers will know for sure whether Zuccarello’s absence cost them a return trip to the Stanley Cup Final as they lost Game 5 and Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final to the Lightning at home by twin, 2-0 margins.
Mats Zuccarello (second from left) was one of three Rangers with first-period goals in their 6-3 win.
The Blues (11-4-1) fought back and pulled within 3-2 on goals by right wingers Dmitrij Jaskin and Vladimir Tarasenko, who scored the sixth of his eight goals away from Scottrade Center on a high wrist shot glove side.
The Washington Capitals remain four points behind the Rangers in the Metropolitan Division after a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Early in the first period with the Rangers leading 1-0, a rebound out front found Steen with a wide open net, but a desperation effort by Lundqvist cleared the puck out of the crease.
An overtime goal from Jason Zucker saw the Minnesota Wild outlast the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2.
Jason Chimera scored two power-play goals while TJ Oshie, Justin Williams and Nicklas Backstrom got the others for the Capitals, who have now won three of their last four.
The Rangers scored on each of their first two shots, and three of their first five, against goalie Jake Allen, who was coming off consecutive shutouts and lifted for Brian Elliott.
Later in the opening period, Zuccarello and Brassard struck again, combining for the Rangers’ second goal.
“A good test for us to raise our level”, said defenseman Marc Staal, who improved to plus-8. Zuccarello’s goal was one of the main highlights of the game as he has enjoyed an excellent season so far.
The Bears (3-5) visit St. Louis (4-4) this week. “He’s been so great for us that we need to be better for him when we can”.
The one goal that didn’t come off a turnover was Hayes’ with 2:14 left in the first period.
Stars 6, Jets 3 – Jamie Benn scored the tiebreaking goal on a third-period power play and host Dallas went on to beat Winnipeg.
Goaltending: If the Rangers were concerned about replacing backup goalie Cam Talbot, those worries are long gone.
Previous year I used to pick the next ten games and write a little blurb on why, but truthfully it would be just as effective if you flipped a coin and then rationalized with the outcome.
When Brassard took a penalty, Troy Brouwer got behind the defense and made it 4-3, and Lundqvist held the lead with a 3-on-1 save before the end of the second. They play a strong game. “I thought (it was) one of the hardest competition games (we’ve) had”.
BRIEFS: Veteran forward Dominic Moore will play in his 700th career National Hockey League game as Vigneault has re-inserted him as the fourth line left wing after being a healthy scratch the last two games.
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“We made lots of mistakes and it costs us goals and we didn’t use our chances”, said Ovechkin, who was stopped twice by Lundqvist on point-blank shots.
