Blues beat Predators for 3rd time this season, 4-3 in OT
ST. LOUIS (AP) Blues forward Alexander Steen knew he was going to get the puck in overtime and he knew what to do with it.
Steen scored 4:01 into the extra period, giving St. Louis a 4-3 victory over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
Steen got the puck from Paul Stastny and scored on a wrist shot in the slot, beating backup goalie Carter Hutton. It was his 13th goal of the season.
''I knew it was coming to me,'' Steen said. ''A good first pass by Petro (Alex Pietrangelo) to go to Stastny as opposed to me. And Stastny, I knew he was coming to me. Nice play.
''We started with the puck which is huge in OT, and kind of waited for our chance to shoot. We didn't waste anything. For the most part, we were pretty good in OT. It's all puck possession.''
St. Louis improved to 3-3 in overtime, while the Predators dropped to 0-6.
''It was in their end the whole time, except for maybe one little play,'' Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. ''That's a whole different game. Guys got excited to play that.''
Two goals late in the third period lifted Nashville back into the game. Predators defenseman Shea Weber pulled his team within a goal when he scored from just inside the blue line at 16:08. Colin Wilson tied it at 18:28 when he poked in the puck from the side of the net.
''It's hard to have to check all the time,'' Hitchcock said. ''Sometimes with our team when we get comfortable, that's when we get ourselves in trouble. We got comfortable.''
Nashville outshot the Blues 33-18 in regulation. St. Louis outshot the Predators 6-0 in overtime.
''We weren't good in the overtime,'' Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said.
St. Louis (23-12-4) earned its third win in three games this season over Nashville (18-13-6) before a sold-out crowd of 19,319. Jake Allen was in goal for all three victories, in which the Blues outscored the Predators 10-4.
''This team, when they get a lead, it's so hard to come back because they collapse and they block a lot of shots,'' Weber said. ''The way Allen's played against us this year, I mean, it's been hard to get goals. I think that was the first time we've scored even strength against them this year.''
The Blues have won six of their last eight overall.
St. Louis went ahead 2-1 in the second period, despite Nashville having a 17-7 shots advantage. The Predators also killed off two power-play opportunities, holding St. Louis to only four shots on goal.
Blues rookie center Robby Fabbri scored his fourth goal in his last five games at 12:04 of the second. Fabbri got the puck in the corner from Jori Lehtera, who had two assists. Fabbri skated to the front of the crease and snapped a wrist shot to the short side for his ninth goal.
''It's about capitalizing and taking advantages of those chances I'm getting,'' Fabbri said. ''It was a great game by the whole team. A lot of lines did good things and that's what it takes to win games like this.''
Kevin Shattenkirk scored at 1:55 of the third period for a 3-1 lead. He took a pass from Lehtera and carried it to the right faceoff circle before firing in a slap shot.
The Blues struck first in the opening period when Dmitrij Jaskin scored on a rebound at 9:38. Jay Bouwmeester hit a slap slot that Hutton blocked with his leg. The loose puck came right back to Jaskin, who quickly knocked it in.
Nashville challenged, claiming the Blues were offside, but the goal was upheld.
The goal by Jaskin, a right wing, snapped his 19-game drought without one. His previous goal was Nov. 12 in New York against the Rangers.
Nashville answered with a short-handed goal by defenseman Mattias Ekholm at the 14-minute mark. Mike Fisher won a faceoff and the puck went to Ekholm, who beat Allen between the legs to tie it 1-all.
It was Ekholm's first goal in 21 games since Nov. 14 against Winnipeg.
NOTES: It was the second game of a back-to-back for Nashville, which beat the Rangers at home Monday night. ... The Blues have won four straight against Nashville for the first time since an eight-game streak ended in 2003. ... St. Louis is 17-5-0 against teams in the Western Conference.
