ST. LOUIS (AP) — Brian Elliott had to work overtime Saturday night and was up to the challenge.
Elliott made 27 saves in his 100th game with St. Louis and stopped all three shootout attempts to lift the Blues over the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 for their fourth straight victory.
“We didn’t want to win in a shootout, but we got it done,” Elliott said. “It’s two big points and some more momentum to try and keep us going.”
Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice for St. Louis. Tarasenko has six goals, including five in his last three games. He had his first career hat trick in a 4-3 win over Dallas on Tuesday night.
Tarasenko had dinner the night before with Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov, his teammate on the Russian Olympic team. Although Tarasenko earned some bragging rights with his two goals, he was quick to point out that Varlamov had his moments as well.
“I was happy to score against him, but he made a good save on me in the shootout,” Tarasenko said.
Joakim Lindstrom scored in the shootout for St. Louis.
Lindstrom played 16 games with Colorado in 2011-12 and was also familiar with Varlamov. He figured a quick shot was his best chance and he was able to beat Varlamov through the legs with a wrist shot.
“He’s such a good goalie,” Lindstrom said. “He’s so good laterally, I figured I wanted to have a quick shot instead of trying to deke him.”
Ryan O’Reilly and Nathan MacKinnon each had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche, who have points in six straight games (2-0-4). But the Avalanche were looking for more than a point.
“I think we played a heck of a hockey game,” Matt Duchene said. “It (stinks) just to be coming out of it with one point. This one’s going to sting.”
Eric Johnson had two assists for Colorado against his former team and Varlamov stopped 27 shots.
St. Louis appeared to have the game under control when Tarasenko redirected Alex Pietrangelo’s shot past Varlamov for his second goal 46 seconds into the third period to give the Blues a 2-0 advantage.
But just 6 seconds later, Magnus Paajarvi went off for holding and O’Reilly made the Blues pay by putting home the rebound of MacKinnon’s shot on the ensuing power play to cut it to 2-1 at 2:19 of the third.
Ian Cole then went off for cross-checking and the Avalanche tied the game with another power-play goal at 5:13 as MacKinnon walked in front and beat Elliott with a wrist shot.
“In that third, we certainly felt like we had our backs against the wall,” Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog said. “We had to go; we didn’t really have the choice to sit back and wait. We had to go and we did and the power play came out big.”
NOTES: O’Reilly’s goal snapped a shutout streak of 118 minutes, 52 seconds by St. Louis. … Colorado, ranked second in the NHL in penalty killing, has killed 20 straight penalties, including three on Saturday. … St. Louis was happy to see the calendar turn to November. The Blues are 20-5-3 in November the last two seasons.
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