O’Reilly scores in OT to lift Blues over Coyotes 6-5

By DAVID SOLOMON
Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Calle Rosen had two goals and Ryan O’Reilly scored in overtime to lift the St. Louis Blues over the Arizona Coyotes 6-5 on Saturday night.

Brandon Saad, Sammy Blais and Robert Thomas also scored for the Blues. Jordan Binnington made 23 saves to help St. Louis snap a five-game losing streak and improve to 8-3 in overtime.

“We weren’t playing very quick in the first period, a little methodical and slow,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “I liked a lot of things in the game, especially the second and the third. I thought we did some real good things offensively, and I liked our forecheck a lot tonight.”

Karel Vejmelka stopped 31 shots as Arizona fell to 3-8 in overtime but earned a point in its sixth consecutive game. Clayton Keller had two goals, and Lawson Crouse, Nick Schmaltz and Nick Bjugstad also scored.

“We’ve been playing pretty good hockey since the break,” Keller said. “I think last game was a little sloppy, but tonight we showed good effort. Tough lapses there in the second and a couple tough penalties, but it was a crazy game.”

O’Reilly scored his 11th of the season 1:02 into overtime in his first game back after missing 14 with a broken foot.

“Gosh, it feels so good to contribute,” O’Reilly said. “Just to be back out there with the guys. Especially a game like that, too, when you kind of start flat and find our way. I thought the guys did a good job. I thought there was life on the bench. Guys were talking. Even when we went down a couple, it was positive.”

Crouse scored his 17th goal with Vejmelka pulled for an extra skater to tie the game at 5 with 57 seconds remaining in regulation.

Bjugstad scored his 13th on a power play with 6:46 left in the third period to cut the St. Louis lead to 5-4.

Keller got his 21st goal this season and second of the game 9:47 into the third to pull Arizona to 5-3.

“It was urgent,” Coyotes coach André Tourigny said. “That’s the word I have in mind. It was not the party there. Everybody was industrious and was on the job. They were focused on coming back in the game and playing well. Today was a good day.”

Rosen registered his first career multigoal game when he scored his sixth of the season 6:44 into the third period and his seventh 1:49 later to expand the St. Louis lead to 5-2.

Thomas got his 13th goal just after returning from the penalty box to give the Blues a 3-2 lead 1:27 into the third period.

Blais scored his first goal since May 1, 2021, off Nick Leddy’s stretch pass right after leaving the penalty box with 2:41 remaining in the second period to tie the game at 2. Blais was reacquired Thursday from the Rangers in the trade that sent Vladimir Tarasenko to New York.

“It felt really good,” Blais said. “My first goal of the season, obviously, so coming back to St. Louis and scoring in my first game, I couldn’t have asked for better than that.”

LIGHTING THE LAMP

Keller’s first goal made him the first Coyotes player to score at least 20 in consecutive seasons since Oliver Ekman-Larsson accomplished the feat from 2014-16.

LINEUP SHUFFLE

Coyotes: D Jakob Chychrun was a healthy scratch. … F Liam O’Brien was scratched with an upper-body injury. … Before the game, the Coyotes recalled defensemen Victor Soderstrom and Dysin Mayo from the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL. Both arrived about 10 minutes before warmups and were in the lineup.

Blues: O’Reilly (broken foot), Thomas (lower-body injury) and RW Pavel Buchnevich (lower-body injury) all returned to the lineup.

UP NEXT

Coyotes: Play at Nashville on Monday night.

Blues: Host the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.

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