ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jonathan Marchessault scored 49 seconds into overtime and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the St. Louis Blues 2-1 Monday night for their third straight win.
Pavel Dorofeyev also scored and Logan Thompson stopped 30 shots to help Vegas win for the sixth time in its last eight games. The Golden Knights moved five points ahead of the Blues for the final Western Conference wild card.
“I think the word is clutch that we’re looking for,” Vegas center William Karlsson said about Thompson. “They were clutch and obviously a huge save there on their penalty shot in OT. That’s what we need from the goalies at this time of year.”
Brandon Saad scored and Jordan Binnington finished with 32 saves for St. Louis, which had won two straight games and five of its last seven.
“They’re a good team.” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. “We played them hard. We’re going to carry the momentum over to the next game. This team isn’t going to quit fighting. We’re going to go all the way to the finish, and still believe in here we can make the playoffs.”
The Blues’ Pavel Buchnevich was awarded a penalty shot 30 seconds into overtime after Noah Hanifin tripped him on breakaway. Thompson denied him with a glove save to keep the score deadlocked at 1-1.
“Certainly he’s a player you want that opportunity,” Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. “The goalie made a good save. That’s part of the game. We had the opportunities. In the third period, we had some good looks and the goalie was able to keep the puck out of the net. But it wasn’t from the lack of opportunities. We had them. We had to finish on our chances.”
Just 19 seconds later, Marchessault picked up a loose puck behind the Blues’ net while William Karlsson fended off two players along the end boards, brought it out on the left side and settled it before firing his 39th goal of the season past Binnington.
“He’s a big goal type of guy,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He is always going to rise up to the moment. That’s one thing about (Marchessault), no matter if he’s had a great game an average game or a poor game, he’s always going to be ready to go when the bright lights are on and tonigh was no different.”
Saad scored his 23rd goal of the season with 5:07 remaining in regulation to tie the game 1-all.
Blues center Oskar Sundqvist left the game with a lower body injury after being checked into the boards by Bryaden McNabb 9:50 into the second period. That left St. Louis with 10 forwards with Bannister electing to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Bannister did not have an update on Sundqvist’s status after the game.
“He’s the heart and soul of this team, a warrior that brings it every single night,” Blues defenseman Torey Krug said. ”You know what you’re going to get out of him. Any time you see a guy like that go down, you feel for him. I think guys in the room were hoping it was nothing going to be serious and we were just trying to push to get a win for him tonight.”
Schenn fought McNabb 10:43 into the first period after taking exception to McNabb’s high hit on Saad in the corner of the Vegas zone. Saad missed the remainder of the first period but returned to the game at the start of the second.
Dorofeyev skated in on Binnington and scored his 11th goal of the season 5:59 into the first period to give Vegas a 1-0 lead.
Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was scratched for the fourth straight game due to illness and did not accompany the team to St. Louis.
UP NEXT
Golden Knights: At Nashville on Tuesday night.
Blues: Host Calgary on Thursday night.
