TORONTO _ The Blues, seemingly on their way to another loss with the usual suspects, turned it around in the closing minutes, tying the game in the final minute of regulation and then getting a goal in overtime from Vince Dunn for a 2-1 win over the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night at Air Canada Centre. The win snapped a three-game losing streak.
Dunn, who is from the Toronto suburbs, got the puck in his own end, skated it up ice on a two-on-one and, with Paul Stastny on the other wing, kept it and scored the first overtime goal of his young NHL career. This was Dunn's first NHL game since Dec. 30. He had a bout with the flu that took him out of the lineup before the bye week. He played two games during the bye week in the AHL to get back in game shape.
The Blues tied the game with 57 seconds to go with a sixth attacker on the ice. Alex Pietrangelo took a shot from near the blueline that was stopped by Frederik Andersen but Alexander Steen pounced on the rebound and put it in on a backhand.
It was just the third time the Blues had scored with a sixth attacker on the ice this season (they've given up seven in those situations) and the first time they had tied the game with that goal. The others had come with the Blues down by more than a goal.
Carter Hutton got the win, stopping 30 of the 31 shots he faced. He made two saves in overtime, including one on a breakaway by William Nylander.
It looked like the Blues were heading for a 1-0 loss that would have fallen on the team's way-past-struggling power play. With the Blues having an extra man on the ice, Toronto's Connor Brown jumped on a puck that bounced past Pietrangelo at the blue line midway through the third period and then he scored on the breakaway. The Blues' had two power plays and in those four minutes of having a man advantage didn't manage even one shot on goal. The Blues have one goal in their past 27 power plays.
The game was a step forward defensively for a team that allowed 17 goals in their final three games before their bye week, but the offense remains impotent. Though the Blues did have at least three goals in each of the three previous losses in the streak, this was the 10th time in 16 games since Jaden Schwartz got hurt that they had two goals or less.
The Blues had 42 shots on goal.
