Blues spoil Tarasenko's return with OT win over Rangers
ST. LOUIS — Kasperi Kapanen scored 1:16 into overtime to help the St. Louis Blues beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night.
Kapanen took a pass from Brayden Schenn to score his 15th goal of the season for St. Louis, which has won two in a row. Tyler Pitlick and Alexey Toropchenko also scored, and Jordan Binnington made 21 saves.
Vincent Trocheck tied it at 2 for the Rangers with 2:03 remaining in regulation on a power play and Jaroslav Halak pulled for an extra attacker.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored and added an assist in his first game in St. Louis since being traded to New York along with Niko Mikkola on Feb. 9. The Rangers fell four points behind second-place New Jersey in the Metropolitan Division with each team still having three games to play.
Toropchenko scored his 10th of the season eight minutes into the second period when he stole the puck from Artemi Panarin and drove down the length of the ice to beat Halak.
Tarasenko scored his 18th on a power play when he buried Mika Zibanejad's rebound 1:55 into the third to tie it.
Pitlick batted a loose puck in the crease past Halak for his seventh of the season 10:13 into the third period to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead.
NOTES: St. Louis returned D Matthew Kessel to Springfield of the AHL and recalled D Dmitri Samorukov under emergency conditions. Samorukov played in his first NHL game since making his debut as a member of the Edmonton Oilers in St. Louis on Dec. 29, 2021. ... St. Louis played a tribute video honoring Tarasenko during a first-period timeout. ... Rangers RW Patrick Kane was scratched for precautionary reasons for the second straight game.
UP NEXT
Rangers: At Columbus on Saturday night.
Blues: At Minnesota on Saturday night.