St. Louis Blues Take Down Rangers, Tarasenko Highlights [video]

The St. Louis Blues (7-3-1) beat the New York Rangers (5-4-2) 4-3 tonight at Madison Square Garden after a shootout goal from Vladimir Tarasenko. The Blues and the Rangers last met at the Blues’ home opener where the Rangers defeated the Blues 3-2. Tonight’s win gives the Blues a five game streak and another check off their redemption list next to defeating Chicago and Anaheim.

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The Blues looked good at the start of the game and the hot Alexander Steen, Vladimir Tarasenko, Jori Lehtera line put early pressure on the Rangers. The Rangers returned the pressure and after two minutes both teams got physical leading to Ian Cole and Dylan McIlrath receiving matching roughing minors. Both teams controlled the 4 on 4 for a minute and Brian Elliot did a great job of preventing a Rangers goal. Shortly after even strength Barret Jackman took a hooking penalty. After a few attempts, Chris Kreider tipped in a shot to give the Rangers the lead.

The Rangers continued to dominate the play and took a lot of quality shots. After 8:15, Steve Ott received a hooking penalty to give the Rangers another power play shot. The Blues handled things a little better and killed the penalty. After thirteen minutes of back and forth play, Ryan Reaves and McIlrath dropped their gloves with the puck and the linesmen finally broke things up after a Reaves right hook. Both received fighting majors. With 5:45 left, Maxim LaPierre received a slashing minor. The Blues killed their third penalty with excellent defensive play then went back and forth until they ended the period down by one and out shot 15 to 4.

The Blues brought some additional momentum to the second period and did a great job closing the shot gap. Tarasenko, Schwartz and Magnus Paajarvi all had excellent scoring chances. After six minutes Matt Hunwick took an interference penalty to give the Blues their first power play. After some playing around and passing, Tarasenko carried the puck in and scored what Announcer John Kelly called a “highlight reel,” power play goal to tie the game at one.

The Blues continued to close the shot gap and after 14 minutes they earned several great scoring chances and evened the shot count. With a little under five minutes left McIlrath took a tripping penalty to give the Blues their second advantage. The Blues did little with this power play however. The Rangers controlled the remainder of the period and had a few quality breaks.

The teams took turns challenging each other at the beginning of the third. During one of these challenges Rangers goaltender Cam Talbot held the puck a little too long to put a face off in his zone. The Rangers couldn’t recover and Patrik Berglund tipped a shot from Jackman to score and take the lead. A minute later the Rangers had at least three shots at an empty net with almost all of the Blues in the crease before Brian Elliot managed to dive on the puck. The Rangers kept the puck in the Blues’s zone though, and Martin St. Louis scored off a feed from behind the net which tied the game. After seven minutes, Kevin Hayes took a hooking penalty giving the Blues their third power play but the Rangers killed it off. With under seven minutes left Rick Nash carried in a shot that Martin St. Louis tipped in for his second. After some brief back and forth Jay Bouwmeester took a drop pass and scored high to tie the game at three with 5:27 left. In the last 30 seconds Shattenkirk took a slashing minor. The Blues held out to put the game into overtime.

The Rangers continued their power play into overtime. Nash had a close shot that tapped the goal post and went under review but was considered a no goal. The Blues regained full strength with 3:36 left in OT and Tarasenko put two strong shots on goal. The Rangers continued to put on pressure and gave the Blues some scares but the Blues pushed the game into a shootout.

Martin St. Louis shot high into Elliot’s glove. Joakim Lindstrom buried it into Talbot’s pads. Lee Stempniak scored through the five hole. Steen scored high glove side to tie it. Rick Nash tried to carry, but was thwarted by a poke check. Tarasenko scored stick side to give the Blues the win.

Both teams played a very strong game but the Rangers had better scoring chances thanks to the speed of Rick Nash and Martin St. Louis. If not for Brian Elliot’s strong skill in goal this game would have played out in much differently. The Rangers were also able to move the puck to the front of the net easily and didn’t hesitate to take shots, especially in the first period. The Blues could learn from this hair trigger play style.

“…a focus this morning was to get better on the penalty kill…” – Jay Bouwmeester

The Blues were slightly better about giving up goals after taking penalties but still failed kill one. In a post game interview with Darren Pang, Jay Bouwmeester said, “…a focus this morning was to get better on the penalty kill, then we give up a goal on our first penalty kill.” Being at a disadvantage is especially dangerous against a team with speed like the Rangers. Failing to kill penalties has been an issue with them and while a higher success rate is nice, there will always be bad calls which means that solidifying the kill is a must.

Earlier today Vladimir Tarasenko was honored as the league’s star of the week due to his stellar performances in recent games. Tarasenko delivered again against the Rangers by scoring a beautiful tuck in goal followed by a shoot out game-winner. It is nice to see Tarasenko start a path to possible super-stardom but the Blues cannot continue to rely on him to make all the plays and win all the games. Aside from Tarasenko the only Blue with more than two goals is Jaden Scwhartz and we’ve seen Tarasenko miss games to injury before. The Blues need depth.

Flying under the radar this game was Ryan Reaves. He broke the club’s fighting dry spell in the first and as expected came out on top. But Reaves also continued offensive streak that most would probably consider a fluke since Reaves isn’t the offensive type. In this game Reaves fumbled the puck while attempting to carry it in. A little later he did his best Tarasenko impersonation and had a successful carry that he got around a few Rangers. About halfway into the second Reaves broke up a routine regathering possession behind the Rangers’ net. We aren’t used to seeing handling, steals or especially goals from Reaves. If this is the sign of things to come, Blues fans will have more to love about their enforcer besides his pranks and fighting.

In our current poll, we are asking what the Blues can do to continue to improve. You can read the results of our previous poll here. Leave a comment with your thoughts on the game or other ideas you may have about how the Blues can improve.

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