In Denver, Colton Parayko put on a show in rush from his the St Louis Blues’ end of the ice stick handled past Avalanche Samuel Girard in the offensive zone and one-handed the game winning goal in overtime for a 3-2 Blues win over Colorado.
“It was 1-on-1 and I hesitated a little bit, but then I saw an opening so I thought I’d take it,” Parayko said. “It was a good opportunity to try to take some ice. Kept pushing the puck forward.”
Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal in Blues’ win over Avs Friday – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Jake Allen made 27 saves as his improvement has continued for St Louis.
“Obviously we’re very happy,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “The boys are excited, they played a really solid hockey game and they deserved to win. It’s great we got it. We beat a really good hockey team.”
Mikko Rantanen and Nikita Zadorov scored for the Avs.
“It was a good game, that was hockey,” Allen said. “Two hard-playing teams going at it. We’re desperate and they’re on a roll. We’re trying to climb our way back and they’re trying to stay on top, and it’s a fun, entertaining game.”
St Louis improved to 9-12-3.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Alexander Steen scored for the Blues in regulation.
“All the meetings and work finally paid off. We talk about it a lot, have a strong locker room and talk after every loss. We need to keep this atmosphere for the next game,” Tarasenko said.
The Avs are 8-0-2 in their last 10 games and dropped to 15-6-5 with the loss.
“It’s a big point, it’s an important point,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “We would’ve liked to have two, but sometimes that’s the way it goes.”
[WATCH: All Blues vs. Avalanche highlights]
Semyon Varlamov made 34 saves in the loss.
“For sure in the second period they were coming at us,” Bednar said. “We didn’t manage the puck very well without [Johnson] back there. It was just average. But third period we found a way to start pouring it on. I felt a couple guys who were missing for the first couple of periods started to play in the third and then we got going.
“I really liked the way our team responded in the third. We find ourselves in a two-hole deficit and we were able to come and dig our way out of that and get it to overtime.”
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