In Toronto, the Maple Leafs’ Michael Bunting‘s second goal of the game came in the third period to tie the game, 5-5, and force extra time with the St Louis Blues on Tuesday night.
The extra session solved nothing, and Brayden Schenn was credited with the winning goal on penalties for a 6-5 win to the Blues.
“It’s huge,” Schenn said. “It’s a building block, something to build on for sure. We can be better in the third period, but they came at us hard and we weathered the storm. It’s a chance for us to build on something here at the beginning of the road trip.”
Schenn also scored in regulation, his goal gave the Blues a 2-0 lead in the first, after Brandon Saad scored his fist of two on the night for a 1-0 advantage.
Jordan Binnington made 20 saves in the St Louis win.
Pierre Engvall cut into the Blues lead before the end of the first with a goal for a 2-1 score.
The Blues moved to 18-17-3.
Jordan Kyrou and William Nylander traded goals for a 3-2 lead to the Blues in the middle frame.
Josh Leivo and Bunting then traded goal for a 4-3 lead to the Blues before Saad hit for his second and a 5-3 advantage to St Louis.
“It’s a next-man-up mentality,” Saad said. “We’re missing players, but we’re focused on our group and what we can do here and that was a big character win for us tonight.
“I think everyone in this room thinks we’ve underachieved. For me myself, I know I can score goals, so it’s just playing the right way every night and the goals will come.”
Toronto’s Auston Matthews scored in the third to close the gap to 5-4 before Bunting tied it late.
“There’s definitely some special meaning behind it just with the history of this organization, the players that have come and worn this jersey before us, so I’ve been fortunate every year to play with some great players and have a great team around us, so it definitely means a lot,” Matthews said.
Ilya Samsonov made 27 saves in the Leafs loss.
“I thought he should have had, I’d like to see him get the first save on the short-handed goal,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I know it’s not the easiest save because he’s moving, but you’d like a save on that one. Aside from that, I don’t know if there’s a lot he can do. … I’m not down on the goaltending. When we play better as a team, everybody looks better, everybody is better. This is certainly not on the goaltending tonight, not even close.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.