Two games are featured this morning in the sweep of the NHL from Wednesday. The first is in St Louis where the Blues rallied from a 5-2 first period deficit to win in overtime, 6-5.
“We came out on our heels a little bit and they came out flying, as they usually do in this building,” said Blues goalie Jake Allen. “It wasn’t as rough as the games [between St. Louis and Chicago] usually are, to be honest. It was more of a skill, puck-possession game. It wasn’t a good first period. We know that, but we came back and proved that we can play.”
Chicago got goals from Marko Dano, Andrew Shaw, Teuvo Teravainen, Brent Seabrook and Patrick Kane in the first then nothing for the rest of the game as the Blues got off their heels.
“With the day or night or whatever you want to call it [that] we had, to come back and play with the energy we did in the second period, I thought the second period was one of the best periods we’ve played all year,” St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We really did the things we wanted to. Guys deserve a lot of credit.”
Travel woes for the Blues put them into Chicago on a bus from Milwaukee early in the morning.
Vladimir Tarasenko completed the rally with his OT marker.
“We had a good first period,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Everything went in the net both ways for 40 minutes. I still think we look at the chances at the end of the game, it was probably a normal chance game. But the pucks were definitely going in tonight.”
Brian Elliott started the game but was relieved, twice, by Allen in the first period. He left the second time with an injury.
“We got off to the start we wanted, and it’s a good lesson to learn, I think, early in the season,” Corey Crawford said. “Can’t let that happen, especially against a good team. We gave them too many goals and let them back in the game. There were still some chances to win that game, but we’ll learn from this one.”
In Vancouver, the Pittsburgh Penguins found their game and defeated the Canucks, 3-2.
It did get a bit tight near the end as the Canucks rallied from a 3-0 deficit.
David Perron, Sidney Crosby and Eric Fehr scored for the Pens who won their fifth straight.
“In pre-season, everybody was telling us how good we were going to be, how many goals we were going to score,” said Fehr. “I think we forgot how hard it is to score in this league, how good all the teams are. After we got down a couple early in the season, I think we figured it out we have to bring it every night and can’t take any games for granted.”
Daniel Sedin and Jannik Hansen scored late for the Canucks.
“We can’t take much out of that,” Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. “We have to be better throughout the game. We’re not going to win many game playing like that.”
Ryan Miller made 20 saves in the loss.
“When we had energy and desperation we actually created quite a bit,” Miller said of the late rally. “It always comes down to how competitive you are and how aware you are about how the other team is trying to slow you down, so we’ll have to make note and just get better.”
Marc-Andre Fleury had 18 saves for the win.
“They kept coming,” Fleury said. “When they got that one goal they got life and kept coming hard at us. I screwed up at the end. I should have just froze it.”
