Coyotes tie game in final second, beat Blues 4-3 in shootout
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ST. LOUIS (AP) - Clayton Keller scored the tying goal with seven-tenths of a second remaining in regulation and Christian Dvorak’s shootout goal was the winner, leading the Arizona Coyotes to a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues on Monday night.
Conor Garland and Dvorak scored in regulation, and Darcy Kuemper made 39 saves as Arizona has won its third consecutive game over the Blues in St. Louis.
"We knew tonight was going to be a really tough game," Keller said. "I think we were super positive on the bench whether we scored, let up a goal, took a penalty. Everyone stayed pretty positive. It was a playoff-like game, that’s for sure."
Ryan O’Reilly scored twice and David Perron added a goal for St. Louis. Jordan Binnington made 23 saves. The Blues have lost three straight games for the first time this season.
"I just don’t think we played well enough, played hard enough," O’Reilly said. "We didn’t out-compete them. It’s embarrassing. We just lost three in a row at home to that team, just sparked them to give them that much."
Arizona forced overtime when Keller, a St. Louis native, scored his fourth goal of the season in the final second with Kuemper pulled for an extra attacker. Keller scored the goal on the power play just 25 seconds after exiting the penalty box himself.
"I was saying right before getting out of the box to get right to the net," Keller said. "I kind of kept it in the back of my head. (Dvorak) makes an unbelievable play, behind-the-back pass right on my tape and I put it in the open net."
O’Reilly scored his second goal of the game and sixth of the season 3:43 into the second period on a deflection off Tyler Pitlick’s stick.
Dvorak tied the game 2-2 when he swatted a rebound from Nick Schmaltz’s shot over Binnington’s pad 11 seconds into the Coyotes power play with 8:24 remaining in the second period. The goal was his seventh of the season and sixth in five games.
Perron put the Blues ahead 2-1 when he got his own rebound, skated around Kuemper, and shot the puck into an empty net 8:11 into the second period.
O’Reilly’s scored his first goal on a power play 6:31 into the first period. It was the Blues’ first in 14 power-play opportunities.
Garland tied the game 1-1 when he one-timed a shot past Binnington 1:48 into the second period for his fifth of the season.
"That Garland line does a great job," Blues coach Craig Berube said about the line with Keller and Schmaltz. "They’re hard to contain, they’re quick, cutbacks and some things like that."
St. Louis was held without a shot on goal for the first 10:54 of the game.
GOALS FOR GARLAND:
Garland’s goal in the first period gave him five consecutive games with a least one point. Garland has three goals and four assists in that stretch.
NEXT MAN UP:
St. Louis announced Sunday that center Robert Thomas will miss four to six weeks with a broken thumb suffered in the first period of Saturday’s game. The club activated defenseman Robert Bortuzzo from injured reserve. Bortuzzo missed 10 games with an upper body injury.
CROUSE IS BACK:
Arizona left wing Kyle Crouse returned to the lineup after missing the past three games with an upper body injury. Crouse took the spot of fellow winger Drake Caggiula, who was scratched with a lower body injury.
UP NEXT:
St. Louis and Arizona will meet for the fifth consecutive game, facing each other Saturday night in Glendale, Arizona.
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