In St Louis, it didn’t take the Blues long to end the suspense of overtime.
David Perron scored with just eight seconds gone in the extra session to defeat the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-3; the goal came on the power play.
“We know there’s eight seconds (remaining on the power play entering overtime), and I talked to
[O’Reilly] and said, ‘Let’s get it going up the ice if we can,'” Perron said. “I kind of got caught in between because we also had a breakout in case it went a little deeper there. I kind of just went back for a second, and I went back in the [offensive] zone, and [Pietrangelo] found me with a nice pass. We were able to get two points here tonight, which is big.”
Jordan Binnington made 27 saves to get the win.
“Tonight, for me, it’s not that we’re not ready, but they came out quick and hard on us like we thought,” Blues head coach Craig Berube said after the win. “That’s a young, hard-working team. I thought they jumped on us early and created some chances. Our goalie made big saves at the right time.”
Pierre-Luc Dubois, Sonny Milano and Oliver Bjorkstrand were the Blue Jackets strikers.
“We played a lot better, more competitive on pucks,” Columbus defenseman Seth Jones said. “We did more simple plays, played more direct.”
Robert Thomas, Brayden Schenn and Oskar Sundqvist scored in regulation for St Louis who improved to 8-3-3.
“We know we can play better,” Schenn said. “We’re grinding out wins right now, letting teams hang around. Columbus is a good team, but we feel like we didn’t play our best hockey game tonight, but we were able to get the two points tonight, and we’ll take it.”
[WATCH: All Blue Jackets vs. Blues highlights]
Elvis Merzlikins made 23 saves n the loss that dropped Columbus to 5-5-3.
“We took a step in the right direction, for sure,” Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella said. “We played a good hockey game. Third period, I thought we were on our heels just a little bit and at certain times at the end, but it’s a step in the right direction. To lose that way, it’s a tough one.”
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