The Rangers rallied for their NHL-leading 18th come-from-behind win Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, overcoming a one-goal deficit at the start of the third period with three unanswered goals to take a 5-3 win over the Blues.

Not even the effect of Pavel Buchnevich’s return to his old stomping grounds was going to get in the Rangers’ way. As valiantly as the former Blueshirt and the Blues fought, scoring three goals on three shots in the span of 2:14 in the second period, the Rangers found a way to avoid what would’ve been their third straight loss in regulation — a slide they have yet to experience this season.

With roughly 12 ½ minutes left in final period, the puck came loose off a Rangers rush and popped out to defenseman Patrik Nemeth at the top of the zone. Nemeth had a wide-open net and blasted a shot that ricocheted off Blues forward Ivan Barbashev’s skate, off the post and in for his first goal of the season to knot the game 3-3.

The Rangers earned a power play shortly after, when Colton Parayko was called for delay of game. Adam Fox sent a shot from the top of the zone that Kreider tipped in at 11:40 to regain the lead for the Rangers. Artemi Panarin then topped off the scoring with an empty-net goal.

For as much as the Rangers could’ve celebrated their late-game rally, head coach Gerard Gallant and the rest of team were hung up on how the flurry of goals from the Blues changed the game.

“It’s a great thing to have, but I was really disappointed giving up those three like that,” Gallant said of the team’s resiliency after the win. “[Goalie Igor Shesterkin] just played his tail off again tonight. He made some unbelievable saves in that first period, the last eight minutes of that period he was incredible to keep us the 1-0 lead.

“Stuff like that happens when you have character on your team, good leadership. They find a way and they dug down in between periods.”

After Ryan Strome whipped a feed from Panarin past St. Louis netminder Ville Husso to extend the lead 2-0 early on in the middle frame, the Rangers suddenly became bystanders as the Blues capitalized on three consecutive shots.

First, an odd-man rush ended with Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly putting one past Shesterkin. Barbashev then beat Shesterkin high glove just over a minute later to even the score. The Blues grabbed their first lead of the night off David Perron’s goal with 15.8 seconds left in the middle frame to send the Blues into the third period up 3-2.

The Rangers did lose fourth-line center Kevin Rooney after the opening 20 minutes, forcing Gallant to go with 11 forwards and switch up his lines as well. Rooney, who won 3 of 4 faceoffs in 5:26, stayed in the locker room after the first intermission with what the Rangers said was an upper-body injury. Gallant didn’t have an immediate update on Rooney after the game.

Still, the Blueshirts found a way to snag two points. Just call them the Comeback Kids.

“There’s going to be certain nights where you don’t have it,” Kreider said. “But being able to dig in and do whatever it takes to win hockey games, obviously that’s certainly easier when you have the best goalie in the world. But at the same time, being able to find our game, being able to forget about a bad shift or a bad period, not let it stack, not let the frustration overcome us and not just going out and working to work. But starting to work hard and work for each other and communicate.”