In Toronto Thursday, the St Louis Blues benefitted from a solid effort from Jake Allen
- Mike Yeo is 4-1-0 with the Blues since taking over bench duties – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
The win was the third straight for the Blues who are 4-1-0 under new head coach Mike Yeo; their record is now 28-22-5.
Vladimir Tarasenko potted the game-winner with just 20 seconds gone in the overtime.
“I don’t like to talk about myself but it’s a really important win for us,” Tarasenko said. “It especially changes what we had before [our position in the standings] a couple of weeks ago. We just try to fight for each other and try to win every game. It was a really big test for us. We knew before it wasn’t going to be a 5-1 game against them like it was at home. We just beat a really good team.”
Frederik Andersen also had a solid game in the Leafs’ net in making 38 saves while taking the loss.
“I thought he was good for sure, I thought we boxed out better around him and made better plays around him. When they’re shooting it in an empty net because you don’t have people [in the right positions], that’s hard for the goalie. When you play right, your goalie looks way better and in the end it looks like he makes way more big saves, but they’re reasonable saves,” Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said.
Patrik Berglund had the Blues’ regulation goal.
“We lost too many battles early, and as we got more and more competitive I thought we did a lot of really good things and got a lot better,” Babcock said. “I liked the kind of game it was, instead of racing to ten [goals], it was a real hockey game.”
Toronto dropped back to 25-17-11 on the season.
“Too bad it (Tarasenko’s game-winner) wasn’t three on three all the time. He’s pretty dangerous; especially if there’s only three guys on the ice and he gets a chance to shoot the puck inside the dots there,” Allen said . “He just does his thing. He’s a special player.”
WATCH: All Blues vs. Maple Leafs highlights
Morgan Rielly scored his second goal of the season to tie the game at 18:56 of the middle frame.