Pavel Buchnevich scored 38 seconds into overtime, leading the St. Louis Blues to a 2-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night.
Alexey Toropchenko scored in regulation for the Blues, while Jordan Binnington made 33 saves. The Blues improved to 12-0-0 when scoring first and are 3-0-1 in their last four games in Vegas.
“We feel real good when we score first, that’s for sure,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “We haven’t done a great job when we haven’t scored first so far this year and that’s something we got to improve upon and correct. But when we have the lead, we play confidently.”
Jack Eichel scored for the Golden Knights, and Logan Thompson made 25 saves.
In overtime, Buchnevich found himself alone in the right corner and took a pass from Robert Thomas, slamming the puck past Thompson for the game-winner.
Bennington was the game’s star, bouncing back from a rough stretch where he had the league’s sixth-highest goals-against average of 4.56 over his previous six starts.
“It’s a fun atmosphere to play in, I enjoy it … going against a team like that,” Binnington said. “They’re a competitive group, and they play the right way and hard, so I think we did a good job stepping up tonight and getting the win.”
The game began with stellar performances from both goaltenders. The game remained scoreless until late in the first period when Toropchenko deflected a shot from Colton Parayko past Thompson to give the Blues a 1-0 lead with just 21 seconds left.
Bennington continued to thwart Vegas’ efforts in the second period with a series of highlight-reel saves. He slid across the crease to stop Nic Roy, dropped into the splits to deny Ivan Barbashev, and poke-checked the puck away from Eichel after a breakaway.
“Good for Binnington, he played well,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He’s the reason they got two (points) and we got one.”
Vegas finally scored when Eichel fired a shot from the top of the right circle, beating Binnington to the top-left corner for a power-play goal with 7:02 left in regulation. The Golden Knights had failed on their first three power-play opportunities.
The Blues, who came into the game with the league’s second-best road penalty kill, now rank fourth in the league with an 88.2% PK away from St. Louis.
“It’s just one of those things,” Berube said. “I don’t take a lot of stock into why we’re so good on the road with the penalty kill and maybe not so good at home. I think we just had some games at home where we gave up some goals, and it’s just that the average goes up. Our structure has been really good all year. I think guys are really dialed in, and we’re blocking shots and doing all the little things right.”
UP NEXT
The teams conclude a home-and-home series in St. Louis on Wednesday.
