TAMPA, Fla, (AP) — Rookie Jordan Binnington stymied the NHL’s highest scoring team and Brayden Shenn broke out of a goal drought for the surging St. Louis Blues.
Binnington made 32 saves, Shenn scored with 58.2 seconds left in overtime and the Blues won their fourth straight game, 1-0 over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
St. Louis is 10-4-1 since the start of this calendar year. Binnington has played a prominent role, going 8-1-1 with two shutouts since making his first NHL start on Jan. 7.
Schenn skated in from the left wing boards and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy for the win.
“I owe these guys some goals,” said Schenn, who went 11 straight games without one. “Hopefully tonight’s a step in the right direction.”
Vasilevskiy, who dropped to 9-0-1 this season following a loss, stopped 38 shots. The Lightning were coming off a 3-2 shootout loss Tuesday night to Vegas. Tampa Bay has lost consecutive games just twice this season.
NHL-leading Tampa Bay has gone 4-3-2 over its last nine games. The Lightning have been held to two or fewer goals in seven of those contests.
“You score a bunch of goals and you give up a bunch of goals,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Now we’re not scoring, but we’re not giving anything up. So, at some point we’ve got to find a happy medium.”
After Colton Parayko hit the post, Vasilevskiy stopped Schenn’s in-close rebound while on his stomach with 7 ½ minutes left in the first.
Binnington got a piece of Nikita Kucherov’s shot off a faceoff midway through the second that also hit the crossbar. He also had an in-close save on Victor Hedman during a 2-on-1 early into overtime.
“Fastest game all year we’ve played by far,” Schenn said. “They’re a fast team. We moved the puck quick. That’s the games that you want to be part of, those are fun.”
Tampa Bay’s No. 2 ranked short-handed unit kept St. Louis off the scoreboard and had a quality scoring on each of three consecutive penalty kills in the second.
The Blues outshot Tampa Bay 15-8 during the opening period, and 32-19 through two.
“We had plenty of chances during the game and the goalie made some saves,” Cooper said. “Not a whole lot to complain about other than the fact the first half of the game we didn’t have that killer instinct to go to the net and shoot pucks as we did the second half.”
Tampa Bay’s top-ranked power play went 0 for 2.
NOTES: Tampa Bay star Steven Stamkos was held off the scoresheet on his 29th birthday. … Blues C Ryan O’Riley had an eight-game point streak (four goals, 11 points) end on his 28th birthday. … St. Louis D Carl Gunnarsson sat out with an upper-body injury. … Tampa Bay RW Ryan Callahan was scratched for the second straight game and fourth time in five games.
UP NEXT
Blues: Start a home-and-home Saturday with Nashville in St. Louis. The teams then play Sunday in Nashville.
Lightning: Host Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
Photo credit – Chris O’Meara / Associated Press / Tampa, FL
