Blues fight back to stun Blackhawks 3-2 in shootout
ST. LOUIS -- After getting the winning goal in the shootout for the St. Louis Blues, defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk praised goalie Jake Allen.
Shattenkirk scored the decisive goal in the sixth round of the shootout to lift the Blues to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night for their fourth straight win.
Patrik Berglund scored first in the shootout before Artemi Panarin tied it for the Blackhawks in the third round. Troy Brouwer and Artem Anisimov each scored in the fifth round before Shattenkirk beat Corey Crawford and Allen denied Teuvo Tervainen in the sixth.
"Jake made some big saves for us there," Shattenkirk said. "They are a team that they are deadly in the shootout. They seem to have a lot of weapons, obviously, a lot of guys who can chip in."
David Backes and Brouwer scored in the third period for the Blues and Allen stopped 33 shots through overtime to earn his 22nd win of the season.
Andrew Ladd scored in the second period and Panarin tied it late in the third for the Blackhawks, who fell to 32-0-3 when leading after two periods. Crawford had 28 saves.
With the point, Chicago pulled into a tie with Dallas for first place in the Central Division, though the Blackhawks have the tiebreaker with 40 regulation and overtime wins. The Blues are a point behind.
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said it's hard to complain about the end result in this game.
"We're disappointed we gave up the lead," he said. "And then you score with the goalie out, you've got to be pretty happy on the road."
The Blackhawks dominated play in the first period, outshooting St. Louis 15-5. The Blackhawks were helped by three St. Louis penalties in the period -- the last a 5-minute major for charging on Ryan Reaves who was also assessed a game misconduct for his hit on Christian Ehrhoff with 2:17 remaining.
This was only Reaves' third game back in the Blues' lineup after serving a three-game suspension for a check from behind on San Jose Sharks defenseman Matt Tennyson on Feb. 22.
Allen stopped Chicago's first seven shots with the man advantage, but Ladd scored his 19th goal of the season and second in five games with the Blackhawks.
"Our penalty killers did a heck of a job," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "That's a power play that's what, in the last 10 games, is 50 percent almost? Their numbers are incredible. The whole penalty kills, the two 2-minute penalties and the 5-minute penalty, I thought we did a great job."
St. Louis tied it at 8:46 of the third period as Backes deflected Shattenkirk's shot into the net for his 17th goal. The goal gave Backes points in four straight games and tied him with Hall of Fame defenseman Al MacInnis with 452 points with the Blues, good for sixth place on the franchise list.
Brouwer put the Blues ahead with 6:40 left in regulation on his 13th of the season, on the power play. He said converting with the man advantage was all about getting into his favorite spot in front of the net.
"That's where I've made a pretty good living in Washington for quite a long time," he said, "and we've tried to create a little bit of opportunity to bring that structure of a power play here and Paul (Stastny) did a great job."
Chicago was on the verge of losing its first game in regulation when leading after two periods since the 2013-14 season when Panarin tied it with his 25th goal of the season with 1:17 left, capitalizing on Crawford being pulled for an extra attacker.
"Our goaltender was playing well, they played well defensively, so it was one of those games we didn't quite get the bounces offensively and it ended up costing us," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. "We couldn't kill those penalties off in the third, so we'll learn from it. I think as long as we have that effort going forward, I'm sure we'll get better results."
In overtime, the Blackhawks had a golden chance to end the game as Tomas Fleischmann put a shot on net that Ladd appeared to stuff past Allen. However, the play was immediately ruled no goal on the ice because the puck did not cross the goal line until after Ladd made contact with Allen. Video replay confirmed the initial ruling on the ice.
NOTES: This game marked the 300th regular-season meeting between the Blues and Blackhawks. ... Prior to the game the NHL announced these two teams will meet in the 2017 Winter Classic at Busch Stadium on Jan. 2, 2017. ... Toews saw his points streak snapped at four games. ... Shattenkirk's shootout-deciding goal was his eighth with the Blues, putting him in second place in franchise history.
