Pavel Buchnevich's OT winner sends Blues past Knights

Field Level Media|published: Tue 5th December, 24:57 2023

Dec 4, 2023; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing Alexey Toropchenko (13) scores a goal against Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Logan Thompson (36) during the first period at T-Mobile Arena. credits: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Pavel Buchnevich scored 38 seconds into overtime to give the St. Louis Blues a 2-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night in Las Vegas.

Buchnevich, left alone at the bottom of the right circle during a defensive mixup by the Golden Knights, took a pass from Robert Thomas and then fired a wrist shot inside the near post for the game-winner. It was his ninth goal of the season.

Alexey Toropchenko also scored a goal and Colton Parayko added two assists for St. Louis, which has alternated wins and losses for seven games. Jordan Binnington finished with 33 saves to improve to 8-2-4 in his career against Vegas.

Jack Eichel scored for the third consecutive game and Logan Thompson made 25 saves for the Golden Knights, who had a two-game winning streak snapped.

The Golden Knights tied it 1-1 with 7:02 left in the third period on a power-play goal by Eichel. He snapped a wrist shot from the top of the right circle past a screened Binnington and into the top far left corner of the net for his 11th goal of the season.

St. Louis took a 1-0 lead in the first period despite the fact Vegas swarmed Binnington for much of the period. The Golden Knights firing 13 shots in the frame, including a pair of breakaways by ex-Blue Ivan Barbashev and Paul Cotter and five more grade-A chances on odd-man rushes.

The Blues, who went eight minutes without a shot on goal near the end of the period, still managed to take the lead with 20.7 seconds left when Toropchenko deflected Parayko's wrist shot from the right point through Thompson's pads for his fifth goal of the season.

Eichel, coming into the contest with back-to-back three-point games for the first time in his career, had the best chance to tie it during a scoreless second period. He broke in free down the slot, but Binnington pokechecked the puck away as the Vegas center attempted a backhand shot.

St. Louis improved to 12-0-0 when scoring the first in a game, the only team in the league without a loss. The two teams meet again on Wednesday in St. Louis.

—Field Level Media

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