Dylan Garand makes 32 saves to help Rangers beat Blues, snap 4-game skid

After the disappointment Dylan Garand expressed publicly in his own performance Sunday in the Rangers’ loss to Edmonton, coach Mike Sullivan said Tuesday morning, before the Blueshirts were back in action against the St. Louis Blues, that he had no doubt that the rookie goalie would bounce back.

“I don’t,” Sullivan said. “And the reason I don’t is because I think he’s a high character kid. I think he’s very competitive. And he also has a quiet confidence. He knows he’s very capable, and we know he’s very capable. He’s a great kid. He’ll compete hard. I know he’ll respond.”

Garand responded all right. The 24-year-old, thrust into the role of No. 1 goalie in the aftermath of the season-ending injury to Igor Shesterkin, made 32 saves as the Rangers beat the Blues, 3-1, ending their four-game losing streak.

“Yeah, it feels good,’’ Garand said afterward. “I don’t know how long it was, but it felt like a long time in between wins there for a group [their last win had come Oct. 19, against Anaheim]. So, yeah, I just really wanted to dig in and pay the price to get us a win tonight. And you know, I thought we played really well, played more of our identity, and yeah, found a way . . . That’s a huge, huge win for us.”

It’s a huge win because after their overall game had slipped noticeably the last two weeks. The Rangers were better defensively than they had been, and created more scoring chances than they had been generating.

A slightly reconfigured lineup — with career winger Will Cuylle centering the third line, and with recalled forward Jaroslav Chmelar and Matt Rempe back in the lineup, playing together on the fourth line on either side of center Noah Laba — had more shot attempts (64-62) and created more scoring chances (34-30) and more high-danger scoring chances (14-10) than the Blues, according to Natural Stat Trick.

After allowing the game’s first goal 50 seconds in to Connor McDavid on Sunday, and 75 seconds in Taylor Ward of the Kings in the previous game, the Rangers not only got through the first two minutes without getting scored on Tuesday, but they took the lead, on Adam Fox’s goal at 1:49 of the second period. That meant they were playing with the lead, rather than chasing the game, since their 5-2 win over Anaheim Oct. 19.

They protected the lead until Cuylle stole a puck and set up a goal by Oliver Bjorkstrand that made it 2-0 at 9:01 of the third. Eeli Tolvanen, who’d relayed Cuylle’s pass to Bjorkstrand on that goal, scored an empty-netter to make it 3-0 at 17:59, before St. Louis’ Pius Suter spoiled Garand’s shutout bid with 57.3 seconds left.

Garand said he could tell early on he was on his game.

“I just felt good,’’ he said. “I just really tried not to think out there. You know I think I’ve been doing too much of that lately in my game, so I just tried to you know go out there and battle, and stop the puck.”

Garand, who played in his 15th NHL game, said he’s had to learn how to manage the physical and mental challenges of playing in the No. 1 role at the NHL level. And Sullivan, when asked what he’s learned about his young goaltender in the last month, mentioned his resilience.

“He’s had a lot of really good starts for us,’’ Sullivan said. “I think this game was an important one for him — he wanted to bounce back and have a solid night for the group. And he did. So I think his resilience, just his ability to, you know, move by circumstance, and not let it affect his performance, or his game moving forward. Even inside of a game, if he lets in a goal that maybe he thinks he should have had, I think he has the ability to move by it.

“The other night [against Edmonton], for example, I thought that the second half of the game . . . he was really solid, made some really good saves for us. So I think that’s a maturity that I’ve certainly witnessed in the short time that I’ve been around him.”

It’s a quality the Rangers are going to need to see more of over the rest of the season, if they are going to be able to right their season and stay relevant in the playoff race.

Notes & quotes: D Sean Durzi missed his second straight game with an undisclosed injury . . . Fox had two points and now has two goals and 17 assists this season. He is tied with Quinn Hughes for second in defenseman assists in the league. Fox played a team-high 23:40, including 5:26 on the power play . . . J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad each won 15 of 21 faceoffs . . . Matt Rempe and Braden Schneider each had a team-high five hits . . . The Rangers are off Wednesday and play at home Thursday night against Philadelphia.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.