NEW YORK--Defenseman Al MacInnis scored three straight goals to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 4-2 victory over the struggling New York Rangers last night.

The Rangers are off to an 0-3-0 start and have been outscored 12-3 in those games.

MacInnis scored the natural hat trick during a 12-minute span in the first period. With St. Louis on a power play, MacInnis scored at 4:56 on a slap shot from the right point that beat Rangers goaltender Mike Richter cleanly. At 11:49 MacInnis scored on a shot from outside the blue line that bounced off Richter's right pad and trickled into the net. Then at 16:48 MacInnis beat Richter with a slap shot from the left point after Pierre Turgeon won a faceoff in the Rangers' end.

St. Louis padded the lead to 4-0 with a goal from Geoff Courtnall at 9:05 of the second period off Dan Cloutier, who replaced Richter at the start of the second period.

New York made it 4-1 at 3:48 of the third period when Wayne Gretzky won a faceoff in the Blues' zone and sent the puck back to Brian Leetch at the left point. Leetch beat Blues goaltender Grant Fuhr with a slap shot for his first goal of the season. Alexander Karpovtsev made it 4-2 when he beat Fuhr from the right point at 11:34.

Ranger fans, with little to cheer about, responded wildly when informed that New York Yankees pitcher David Wells was in the arena. "Let's Go Yankees" was the loudest cheer of the night at Madison Square Garden.