ST. LOUIS_The flashbacks to the last 50 years continued at Scottrade Center Saturday night. Two nights earlier, the franchise honored members of the 1967-68 team in a pre-game ceremony. On this evening, Carol Salomon the wife of original owner Sid Salomon III, dropped the ceremonial first puck.
The flashbacks to last season continued on the ice, where a club that was ravaged with injuries a year ago lost two centers against the New York Rangers. Kyle Brodziak went down the tunnel in the first period, Jori Lehtera headed back to the locker room in the second period, and Carl Gunnarsson exited at the second intermission. None returned, leaving the club especially thin at center.
So whereas the first two games of the season saw the Blues dominate, the third game turned into a battle of survival. On a memorable debut for goaltender Carter Hutton, who put on a clinic in the third period, the Blues preserved a 3-2 win over the Rangers in front of 19,197 at Scottrade Center.
Hutton finished with 32 saves, four in the third period that will be shown repeatedly in the post-game highlights, to improve to 3-0 for just the fourth time in club history. The team will have chance to go 4-0 for the second time in their history when they travel to Vancouver Tuesday.
Hutton came to the rescue for a Blues' team that will have some injuries issues when they meet the Canucks in the first of a three-game road trip through Western Canada.
Down just one forward at the time, Brodziak, the Blues opened a 3-1 lead on New York early in the second period.
The team went on the power play in the third minute of the period, and it didn't take long for Alex Pietrangelo to pick up the unit's fourth goal of the season and first at home.
The Rangers' J.T. Miller was whistled for high-sticking, and after Paul Stastny won the ensuing faceoff, Vladimir Tarasenko found a wide-open Pietrangelo in the far slot. The defenseman pulled the trigger on his first goal of the year, needing only six seconds on the man-advantage.
For Stastny, the assist on Pietrangelo's goal was his second point of the game, giving him six points less than 2{ games at that point of the night.
Stastny's first point _ and 100th as a Blue _ was a goal that regained the lead for the club, 2-1, late in the first period. After Robby Fabbri put a shot on net, New York netminder Henrik Lundqvist couldn't prevent the juicy rebound and Stastny buried his second goal of the season.
But up two on Pietrangelo's goal, the Blues couldn't hold the cushion long. Just 30 seconds after taking the two-goal margin, Chris Kreider pulled the Rangers back to within one.
Hutton was magnificent in the third period, but he handed one to New York's Mika Zibanejad just 2:58 into the second period.
Scottie Upshall was backchecking Zibanejad on the play, but the Ranger center was able to flip a backhanded shot on net and Hutton didn't cover up the shortside, allowing it to slip past him for a 3-2 score.
The game headed to the third period by that same score, but the Blues were now without two more players and three total. They were down to 10 forwards and five defenseman, but evidently all they needed was their goalie.
In the first four minutes of the final frame, Hutton turned aside point-blank shot after point-blank shot. The first was on Miller, then Krieder, then Ryan McDonagh.
Finally, the Blues were granted a reprieve when New York was called for having too many men on the ice with 14:33 left in the period. But even that didn't help, as the Rangers' penalty-killing unit outshot the Blues' power play 2-0 in next two minutes, and Hutton came up big on one of those shots, denying Miller on a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush.
The Blues were withering but at least the clock was dripping.
At that point in the night, the Blue had been awarded five power plays and New York just one, so it wasn't a surprise when the Rangers picked up a power play with 11:20 remaining in regulation when Colton Parayko was called for hooking.
New York had just one shot on that man-advantage, but the attempts were adding up. They grew to 15-0 in favor of the Rangers by the end of the game, as the Blues were simply trying to hold on. They did.
The Blues' other goal of the night belonged to Tarasenko, his third of the season. He found himself on a breakaway and snapped a nine-foot wrist shot past Lundqvist for a 1-0 lead just 1:13 into the opening. Kreider quickly answered, scoring 5:25 into the period for a 1-1 score.
