Henrik Lundqvist made 35 saves and the New York Rangers had five different goal-scorers in a 5-0 win against the St. Louis Blues at Madison Square Garden.
It was Lundqvist's 60th NHL shutout and his first against the Blues in 10 appearances. He raised his save percentage from .901 to .917 as a result of the shutout.
Defenseman Dan Girardi and forwards Jimmy Vesey, Rick Nash, Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes each scored. Vesey, who has a team-high six goals, also had two assists for his first career three-point game. Forward Chris Kreider had two assists in his first game after missing four straight with neck spasms.
The Rangers (7-3-0) lead the NHL with 40 goals. They have scored 32 goals in seven home games, including 11 in the past two, and are 6-1-0 in those games. They have given up nine goals in their past five home games and 12 in their past seven overall.
Girardi gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 9:37 of the first period. Vesey scored a power-play goal 94 seconds later to make it 2-0. The Rangers scored three more in the second period.
* McDonagh had an assist to give him at least one in a career-high eight consecutive games. … Stepan's assist on Vesey's goal was the 200th of his NHL career. … Nash's goal was the 398th of his NHL career. … Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester played in his 1,000th career NHL game.
Ken Hitchcock: "Could've been 2-0, could've been 1-0, the way [the Rangers] were playing, they were in control. Their game was in control. They were in control. It's their team play. Their team play is excellent."
"That's a [heck] of a team and they gave us a [heck] of a lesson. They are playing great team hockey and they just exposed any weakness we had. They exposed it. They've done it to a few teams now. Real eye opener for me."
Alex Pietrangelo: "I think the overall game plan for me is more of a concern. If we stick to our game we're going to score goals and we're kind of getting away from that game plan. Simplify the game, get more traffic and we'll score goals."
The Rangers got four goals on 20 shots against Blues goalie Jake Allen before he was pulled with 7:05 left in the second period. Carter Hutton made eight saves in relief. The Blues (5-3-2) have scored three goals and are 1-2-1 in their past four games.
* With the Rangers leading 2-0 in the first period, Lundqvist made a sprawling glove save on Robby Fabbri, who was sprung in alone by Pietrangelo and tried to beat the goalie with a backhanded shot at 15:04.
* Vesey, Miller and Hayes put on a clinic of how to execute a 3-on-1 rush late in the second period. Vesey started it up the ice. Hayes and Miller joined. Miller cut inside, got the pass from Vesey, played it off his skate and moved it to Hayes for a glove-side one-timer.
* After forcing a turnover on Pietrangelo at the left point, McDonagh walled off the Blues captain, shielding him from the puck and allowing Kreider to get to it first. Kreider found Girardi at the point. His shot deflected off of Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko's stick and went in past Allen.
"That's a [heck] of a team and they gave us a [heck] of a lesson. They are playing great team hockey and they just exposed any weakness we had. They exposed it. They've done it to a few teams now. Real eye opener for me."
Alex Pietrangelo: "I think the overall game plan for me is more of a concern. If we stick to our game we're going to score goals and we're kind of getting away from that game plan. Simplify the game, get more traffic and we'll score goals."
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