After trading goals with the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday, the St Louis Blues hit for three goals in the third period and won, 6-3.
“I think we played pretty solid all three periods,” Blues head coach Craig Berube said. “I thought we did a good job of protecting the middle of the ice, especially in our end. They’re a very good team finding it. Third period we let a couple slip there, but our goalie came up big for us in the third and made some big saves. We scored on our opportunities tonight and stayed out of the penalty box.”
Brandon Saad scored first in the final frame for a 4-3 lead to the Blues, Ryan O’Reilly potted a marker for a 5-3 advantage.
“We did a good job of skating and forechecking well, and when we did that, we got the puck back and had some good looks,” O’Reilly said. “Scoring six goals is always good, especially against that team, who is very good, and only giving up three is good against them. It’s always a tough challenge.
“We were disappointed with that effort (a 3-2 overtime loss at the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday). It wasn’t a complete game. I thought we were more engaged tonight, we were more physical at times. It was just a more complete game.”
Pavel Buchnevich’s second of the game made it 63 with an empty-net strike.
“We’ve been getting contributions all year from everybody, and we’ve got to continue to do that,” Berube said. “It was really nice tonight that we got all four lines involved in the offense, and Husso did a great job shutting that game down for us.”
Buchnevich opened the scoring for a 1-0 lead.
Klim Kostin pushed the Blues lead to 2-0.
Ville Husso made 34 saves in the St Louis win.
William Nylander hit for a pair of goals for the Maple Leafs.
“They have a lot of skill. They’re one of the top teams in the NHL on the rush, and we knew that going into the game that it was going to be a challenge for us to defend against that, and they got the better of us,” Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We didn’t do a good enough job. They’ve been doing that pretty consistently to everybody in the league.
“They’re as dangerous as any team in the NHL on the rush, and they showed that tonight.”
The Leafs fell to 32-13-3.
Toronto’s TJ Brodie tied the game, 3-3, in the4 second period.
The Blues improved to 29-14-6.
Brayden Schenn also scored for the Blues, his strike put them ahead, 3-2 in the middle frame.
“Campbell robbed me on the first one, but it was one of those things where I got the bounce on the rebound and I was able to elevate it over his pad on the second one,” Schenn said.
Jack Campbell made 28 saves in the Toronto loss.
“We lost, so it was not good enough, but we’ve got practice tomorrow,” Campbell said. “We’ll work hard and get back at it.
“They’re a dangerous team. They’re really good off the rush; we knew that going in. They capitalized on their chances. They’re a really good team.”
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