Blues stop Kraken in OT, 4-3 Buchnevich hits for winner in OT

In Seattle, Pavel Buchnevich  hit for a double on Friday night in a 4-3 win for the St Louis Blues over the Kraken in extra time.

Buchnevich scored early in the third period to tie the game, 3-3.

His double came at 3:31 of the extra session for the win.

“[Brayden Schenn could] not give me a better pass,” Buchnevich said. “I’ve just got to hit the net. Lately, I’ve missed the net a lot, so good I hit the net right now.”

Jordan Binnington made 33 saves in the win.

The Blues improved to 25-20-2.

“It was a roller coaster, obviously,” St. Louis interim coach Drew Bannister said. “I thought in the first period we played well. I thought we played some pretty good hockey, then we start the second period, got ourselves into some issues with … whether it was turnovers, not being able to get pucks underneath.

“When we had opportunities to get guys off the ice, we get caught out on line changes or some long shifts in our D-zone. But in the third period, we came out quickly, started to forecheck a lot more.”

Oskar Sundqvist staked the Blues to a 1-0 lead at 7:39 of the opening stanza.

Seattle replied with a marker from Brian Dumoulin  midway through the first for a 1-1 tie.

The Kraken dropped to 20-18-10

“It’s a tough point to lose,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We played hard, we played a pretty good hockey game. We obviously would like to capitalize on one or two good opportunities that we had, and that can maybe change the game when it’s a one- or a two-goal game.”

In the middle frame, Oliver Bjorkstrand  put the Kraken up, 2-1, at 3:55  off an odd man rush.

“The guys made a nice play, making it wide open for me there,” Bjorkstrand said, “so just had to not miss.”

The Kraken pushed the advantage to 3-1 when Eeli Tolvanen  scored at 6:42.

“When [Bjorkstrand is] hunting the puck the way that he is, his stick becomes so effective,” Hakstol said. “If he’s moving his feet on pucks … I mean, I don’t know how many strips he had tonight, but he had hit some big ones.”

The Blues got one back on a marker form Robert Thomas  at 15:01 of the seocnd, off the power play, to make it 3-2 headed to the third.

“I was pretty much just standing there, and Scotty made a great shot and just put it off my stick,” Thomas said. “I didn’t really move it much, so … it was just a great play by him.”

Joey Daccord made 14 saves in the loss.