Blues fend off struggling Rangers

Robert Thomas scored a goal and earned an assist as the St. Louis Blues edged the visiting New York Rangers 3-2 Sunday.

Pavel Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou also scored for St. Louis, which is 6-2-2 since Jim Montgomery replaced Drew Bannister as head coach.

Joel Hofer made 26 saves to win his fourth straight start for the Blues.

Brett Berard scored and Will Cuylle scored and Jonathan Quick made 21 saves for the Rangers, who have lost 10 of their last 13 games.

The Rangers played without leading scorer Artemi Panarin, who is sidelined day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

The Blues broke the scoreless tie with 1:09 left in the first period. Jake Neighbours shoved a diagonal pass toward the right circle and Buchnevich pounded a one-time shot just inside the right post.

St. Louis dominated the second period while increasing its lead to 3-0.

The Blues applied pressure in the first 30 seconds as Alexey Toropchenko cut across the crease for a point-blank shot and a rebound conversion. They stayed on the attack from there.

Kyrou made it 2-0 by stealing the puck from defenseman Ryan Lindgren at the New York blue line and breaking in alone to beat Quick.

Thomas increased the lead to 3-0 midway through the period. He rushed the puck up the right wing and waited for Philip Broberg to join on left wing for a 2-on-1 break.

That forced defenseman Braden Schneider to play the pass, giving Thomas room to beat Quick over the glove.

Berard put the Rangers on the board midway through the third period by squeezing a short-side shot past Hofer from the left faceoff dot.

Just 1:19 later, Cuylle cut the Blues' lead to 3-2 by scoring from the low slot off Alexis Lafreniere's pass from behind the net.

--Field Level Media