In St Louis, Bryan Rust scored with 76 seconds gone in extra time on Saturday to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 3-2 win over the Blues.
“I just tried to keep their guys on the ice,” Rust said. “I took a shot and it got blocked and Evgeni made a nice move there and made a good play to get the puck to me.”
The win snapped a four-game skid for the Pens.
“I thought it was a hard-fought game,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “I loved our will to win. We generated a fair amount of scoring chances. I don’t think we got rewarded for some of our effort out there. I thought the Blues played hard. I thought their goalie played really well. There’s a fine line between winning and losing in this League. It could have deflated us when they scored late in the game. Our effort was strong in the overtime.”
St Louis’ Justin Faulk tied the game, 2-2, with less than three minutes left on the regulation clock to force the extra session.
“We were down and bodies laying down there, just kind of in a normal situation, you don’t go in there and kind of sniff around for something being down one,” Faulk said. “You just kind of went to the net and hope you can find it on the weak side. It just squirted free just enough to get a little bit on it.”
Tristan Jarry made 25 saves in the Pittsburgh win.
After a scoreless first period, Pavel Buchnevich scored in the second period to give the Blues a 1-0 lead.
The Penguins moved to 28-21-9.
“We were on our toes the whole game,” Rust said. “That’s how we need to play the whole time.”
Evgeni Malkin tied the game, 1-1, in the middle frame for the Penguins.
The Blues dropped to 26-28-5.
Pittsburgh took a 2-1 lead in the third period on a strike by Marcus Pettersson, it was his goal of the season.
Jordan Binnington made 45 saves in the Blues loss.
“[Binnington] played great, especially that first period,” Faulk said. “I think we gave up 25 shots, or whatever it was (21). He stood tall and gave us a chance, more than a chance.
“I thought in general we played more of a competitive hockey game tonight. Obviously heavily outshot in the first, but I think we battled in the second and third. We had a little bit more there. We pushed the OT there, but (it) kind of becomes a little bit of a crapshoot once it gets there with 3-on-3 hockey.”
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