ST. LOUIS (AP) — Robert Thomas scored twice and the St. Louis Blues beat the New York Rangers 6-2 Thursday night to snap a four-game losing streak.
David Perron, Jake Walman, Ivan Barbashev and Ryan O’Reilly also scored for the Blues, who were 0-3-1 in their skid and remained two points ahead of Minnesota in second place in the Central Division. Ville Husso made 27 saves to improve to 14-4-3 on the season.
Ryan Strome and K’Andre Miller scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin gave up four goals on 17 shots before replaced by Alexander Georgiev, who finished with 16 saves as the Rangers lost their second in a row after winning three straight.
Thomas tapped in a feed from Jordan Kyrou past Shesterkin for his ninth goal of the season to put St. Louis up 1-0 with 6:55 left in the first period.
Barbashev scored his 18th goal of the season 45 seconds later on a pass from Brandon Saad to expand St. Louis' lead to 2-0.
Thomas followed with his second goal of the game and career-high tying 10th of the season with 4:19 remaining in the first to make it 3-0.
Strome scored his 13th goal of the season on a power play with 1:23 remaining in the period to get the Rangers on the scoreboard.
O’Reilly roofed his 13th over Shesterkin 15 seconds into the second to put St. Louis up 4-1 and end Shesterkin’s night.
Jake Walman, who was a last-minute addition to the lineup, scored his third of the season on a delayed penalty at 7:07 to make it 5-1 and Perron added his 14th just 38 seconds later for a five-goal lead.
Miller scored his fifth goal of the season on a power play with 7:37 remaining in the second close the scoring. Artemi Panarin assisted on the goal giving him assists in four straight games.
GOOD AS GOLD:
US women’s hockey goaltender Alex Cavallini was in attendance. Cavallini was a member of the silver medal 2022 Olympic team and won a gold medal with Team USA in 2018.
BLUENOTE SHUFFLE:
Blues LW Pavel Buchnevich was scratched as he remains in concussion protocols after taking a shot to the head Tuesday night against Ottawa. ... C Logan Brown returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for St. Louis’ last seven games and 14 of the team’s last 15 games. ... C Tyler Bozak (non-COVID illness) was a late scratch after participating in the morning skate forcing St. Louis to dress seven defensemen and 11 forwards.
UP NEXT:
Rangers: At Dallas on Saturday night to conclude a four-game road trip.
Blues: At Nashville on Saturday.
