In St Louis, the visiting Buffalo Sabres scored three times in the first period to take a 3-0 lead into the middle frame on Tuesday.
Jeff Skinner, Alex Tuch, and Owen Power were the strikers in the first.
The Sabres slipped a bit the final two periods but held on for a 5-3 win over the Blues.
“They’re obviously a really good team, and we wanted to make sure that we came out making things simple and just taking time and space away from them,” Buffalo’s Tage Thompson said. “I think that’s what you see in the first shift there. I think the whole first period we stuck to the game plan pretty well and wore them down. In the second, I think we got a little relaxed, a little too comfortable, and obviously they’re a good team, they’re going to make a push, and they did.”
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 25 saves in the Buffalo win.
The Sabres improved to 25-19-3, off their fourth straight win.
“It’s starting on time,” St. Louis forward Brayden Schenn said. “You can’t do that two games in a row and expect to come back from 4-0 and 3-0 (in 5-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday). Obviously, you make pushes, but the reality is it’s hard to come back from 3-0 or 4-0 in this league. We, myself included, gave up the slot early there in the first two minutes. Before you know it, it was 2-0.”
Thompson had a goal in the second period that gave the Sabres a 4-0 lead.
“It was really close I thought to make it 5-0, and it didn’t happen and they came back in the game, give credit to them,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “They fought hard. They are a good hockey team, and the atmosphere got going and you’ve got to win games and find ways to win games regardless. You’ve got to be able to handle adversity, adverse situations. I thought our guys through the end battled extremely well even down a man, two men with the goalie pulled. We looked confident and stayed aggressive.”
St Louis dropped to 23-22-3.
Ivan Barbashev and Schenn scored in the second to get the Blues within 4-2.
Jordan Kyrou scored with 47 seconds gone in the third to get the Blues within 4-3.
“We felt good between the second and third, getting two goals and getting ourselves rolling,” the Blues’ Torey Krug said. “Obviously, we get one first shift (in the third) and feel good about it, but we came up short.”
Dylan Cozens hit an empty net for the 5-3 final with 59 seconds left on the clock.
“Obviously, we didn’t want the game be that close after we got up four goals, but we found a way, and that’s what matters,” Cozens said.
Jordan Binnington made 26 saves in the Blues loss.
“We threw the puck away blindly, and then they got it and we should have got right on the guy and killed it and we didn’t do that and they got the goal 6-on-4,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “Don’t need to throw it away at that point.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.