Keller, Coyotes flatten Blues

In St Louis, the Blues were celebrating a tough win when the Coyotes’ Clayton Keller reminded them it was way too early.

Keller scored the game-tying goal with one second left on the regulation clock to force extra time at 3-3.

Keller had been in the penalty box ahead of the goal on a holding call, but was released to ice.

“It’s not great to go in the box there, but yeah, I think it was a great game,” Keller said. “I was saying right before getting out of the box to get right to the net. I kind of kept it in the back of my head. [Dvorak] makes an unbelievable play, behind-the-back pass right on my tape, and I put it in the open net.

“I’ve seen him make that play a bunch throughout the years, just kind of like a behind-the-back or no-look pass to the back door. I like to think I’m always calling for the puck.”

Darcy Kuemper, who was pulled for the extra attacker, made 40 saves for the win after penalties.

“This was back-and-forth, both teams were working hard,” Arizona head coach Rick Tocchet said. “There’s ebbs and flows to the game and we stuck with it. A lot of good moments, a lot of big moments for our team. It was a gutsy effort.”

Ryan O’Reilly scored twice for St Louis, including putting the Blues up, 3-2, in the third period.

“I just don’t think we played well enough, played hard enough,” O’Reilly said. “Again, we didn’t outcompete them. It’s embarrassing. We just lost three in a row at home to that team and just sparked them to give them that much. Four, I guess, not-so-great games. It’s very disappointing. It’s embarrassing.”

Christian Dvorak and Conor Garland also scored for Arizona in regulation.

“We played our game tonight I thought a lot more,” St. Louis head coach Craig Berube said. “Puck possession in the offensive zone, grinding down low, working, I thought it was a really good job of that tonight. A lot of positives in the game; we’ve just got to stay going.

“We’re going through some adversity right now and we’ll get through it.”

David Perron added a single marker for the Blues.

Dvorak and Garland also scored in the skills competition.Jordan Binnington made 23 saves in the loss.