Blues flatten Panthers, 4-1 Buchnevich hits for double in win

Posted on by

In Sunrise, the visiting St Louis Blues scored three times in the middle frame to help them to a 4-1 win over the Panthers on Thursday night.

Pavel Buchnevich hit for a double and three points for the Blues.

Joel Hofer made 37 saves in the win.

St Louis moved to 16-15-1.

Following a scoreless first period, the Blues took a 1-0 lead at 4:50 of the middle frame on a strike by Jordan Kyrou .

Buchnevich, who had a goal waved off the second, made it 2-0 at 7:46.

The Panthers dropped to 18-12-2.

“This is a really good example of why you can’t play a rush game, because you don’t have to give up a lot of chances,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We gave up five, and they scored on three of them. I am not looking at Sergei Bobrovsky on any of them. … Did they have a lot of chances? No, but the ones they did have were so big.”

Eetu Luostarinen was the lone striker for the Panthers, his goal cut the deficit to 2-1 at 13:47 in the second period.boards.

“Just a weird bounce,” Luostarinen said. “Every goal counts. … I think you see weird bounces all the time in hockey. I was not sure it counted.”

St Louis’ Alexey Toropchenko tipped in a shot at 16:43 for a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.,

“Overall, it was a great response for our group,” Kyrou said. “We came out and had a strong start, and that is what we wanted to do after a slow start against Tampa.”

Buchnevich potted an empty-net goal at 16:51 for the 4-1 final count.Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves in the loss.