Perron, Blues defeat Rangers for eighth straight home win

ST. LOUIS -- David Perron scored for the fourth straight game after being named to the Central Division All-Star team, and the St. Louis Blues defeated the New York Rangers 5-2 at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

"It's really exciting," Perron said. "Thanks to all the people obviously in St. Louis that helped me get here, and also probably other cities, but I'm sure most of the votes came from here in town, and the team helped me out too. They reached I'm sure to different platforms. The St. Louis Cardinals]*
Filip Chytil had a goal and an assist, and Henrik Lundqvist made 24 saves for the Rangers (21-19-4), who had won two in a row.
"That's a veteran team, obviously," Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei said. "They won the [Stanley] Cup last year and they wait for you to make mistakes and they've got plenty of skill to take advantage of those. They're a patient team, and give them credit, they played a good game, played a good, structured game."

Perron's power-play goal, his team-leading 20th of the season, gave St. Louis a 3-1 lead at 1:26 of the second period. It was a one-timer from the left circle high to the short side.
Brett Howden cut the lead to 3-2 at 8:49 when he slipped in a Chytil pass from behind the net.
Sanford made it 4-2 at 10:34, a one-timer off an Ivan Barbashev pass, and Jaden Schwartz increased the lead to 5-2 at 14:50 when he redirected a Brayden Schenn pass.
Chytil gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead 1:34 into the first period.
Robert Bortuzzo tied it 1-1 on a breakaway at 9:38, coming out of the penalty box after serving a double-minor for high sticking. It was his first goal in 51 games, dating to Feb. 14, 2019.
"Yeah, unfortunate play with the high stick, but had some timing on the play and [Barbashev] made a good pass," Bortuzzo said. "Fortunately got her to go home on a pretty good [goalie]."

Skjei didn't believe the sequence had a major influence in the game.
"I don't think so. That was really early in the game," Skjei said. "We tried to bounce back from that right away, and obviously it's something you don't want to happen, but you have to move past it right away and focus on that next shift."
Vince Dunn gave St. Louis a 2-1 lead at 18:41.
Schenn, Barbashev and Alex Pietrangelo each had two assists for St. Louis.

They said it

"You get pretty impressed when you watch them play because it's almost not a single play where they beat themselves. They're so patient. They play very smart hockey, mature hockey. They just have one way to play. It doesn't matter if they're down or up a goal. They know when to chip in pucks. They know when to go to the net. It's just smartness. They win for a reason. I thought it was pretty impressive to see how poised they were all the time." -- Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist on the Blues
"Well-deserved, and we're all pretty happy for him, for sure. It's a nice thing for him, it really is. It means a lot to him. It means a lot to us. He's been a real good player for us." -- Blues coach Craig Berube on forward David Perron on winning the All-Star vote

Need to know

Lundqvist tied John Vanbiesbrouck (882) for 9th place on the NHL's all-time games played list. ... Rangers defenseman Libor Hajek returned after missing the past 16 games with a knee injury. He was minus-2 in 15:05. ... Rangers defenseman Marc Staal did not play due to an upper-body injury. ... Schenn's second assist was his 100th with the Blues. ... Perron has 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) in his past 12 games. ... Schwartz has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in the past 12 games. … St. Louis' 16 home wins are tied for first in the NHL (16-4-3) with the Pittsburgh Penguins (16-5-3). … Blues forward Ryan O'Reilly had his nine-game home point streak end.

What's next

Rangers:Host the New York Islanders on Monday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, MSG, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Blues:Host the Anaheim Ducks on Monday (8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, PRIME, NHL.TV)