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What goalie duel? Rangers chase Allen, beat Blues as teams combine for nine goals

As noted in today’s Goalie Nods, the starting netminders for tonight’s Rangers-Blues game boasted two of the NHL’s best save percentages:

St. Louis’ Jake Allen, who led at .950, and New York’s Henrik Lundqvist, who was second at .949.

And then, just as everybody expected... the teams combined for one of the highest-scoring games of the year.

The Rangers beat the Blues 6-3 at MSG on Thursday night, winning their seventh straight while chasing Allen just 15 minutes in, after scoring three times on their first five shots on goal.

Mats Zuccarello led the way with three points for New York, while Dan Girardi, J.T. Miller, Derick Brassard, Derek Stepan and Rick Nash all had a pair. Miller’s goal midway through the second period was the eventual game-winner.

The Blues, meanwhile, did a decent job of getting after Lundqvist, who allowed three goals for just the second time this season. Dmitri Jaskin, Troy Brouwer and Vladimir Tarasenko all found the back of the net.

Tonight, though, was mostly about the Rangers.

The team moved to a sparkling 12-2-2 on the year, and did it in style by beating Allen early and often. The Blues netminder came into tonight’s action having posted back-to-back shutouts over the Preds and Devils and, accordingly, was named the NHL’s second star of the week on Monday.

But Thursday wasn’t his night.

His replacement, Brian Elliott, fared slightly better. He only allowed two goals on 16 shots -- the Rangers’ final tally was put into an empty net by Girardi -- and the Blues did claw their way back into the game when Brouwer’s late second-period goal made it 4-3.

In the third, though, the Rangers salted away victory early when Ryan McDonagh scored on the power play. New York also did a nice job of keeping the Blues at bay in the final frame, holding them to just eight shots on net.