ST. LOUIS — At least they got a goal.
Brian Boyle scored to snap the Rangers’ scoring drought at 172 minutes, but the Blueshirts fell last night to the Blues, 4-1, their third straight loss and fourth in five games (1-2-2).
Rookie Chad Johnson stopped 21 shots in a rare start in place of Henrik Lundqvist.
“I thought we played some good minutes tonight, but again, we just don’t score goals,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “We’ve just got to keep on grinding through this and try to find a way to have some sort of consistency.
“The big problem for me right now is our top guys are fighting it. . . . I believe they’re good people and they’ll work themselves out of it.”
Alex Steen and Roman Polak each had a goal and an assist, and Chris Mason made 21 saves to help the Blues win their season-high fourth straight.
David Perron and David Backes also scored, and Keith Tkachuk had two assists. St. Louis improved to 4-2-1 under coach Davis Payne.
Boyle got his fourth of the season after he stripped Blues defenseman Eric Brewer of the puck behind the Blues’ goal, skated in front and put a backhander past Mason at 7:37 of the second to tie it at 1.
The Rangers finished with 22 shots on goal and just missed tying the game in the third, but Mason made a point-blank stop on Marian Gaborik.
Polak took a feed from Steen and fired a shot from the right point that deflected in off Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi’s skate 45 seconds into the third period that gave the Blues a 2-1 lead. Steen made it 3-1 by backhanding a shot off Johnson 8:31 into the third.
“He read me perfectly and I wasn’t against the post,” Johnson said. “He made a good shot, but it’s unacceptable. I can’t let in goals like that. I misplayed it and he took advantage.”