For the second straight road game, the St. Louis Blues fell behind by three goals early. This time, though, they managed to come back and get a win.
After trailing 3-0 after the first period at Toronto on Monday, St. Louis tied the score in about a 5-minute span in the second and pulled out a 5-4 shootout victory over the Maple Leafs.
On Saturday night, the Blues spotted the New York Islanders a 4-1 first-period lead en route to a 5-2 loss.
“Two slow starts. … Our goalie wasn’t very good in the first period for us tonight,” Blues goalie Manny Legace said, laughing. “But the boys battled back and picked up an amazing two points for us.”
Brad Boyes scored 33 seconds into the second period to start the rally, and Andy McDonald scored in the shootout for Blues.
“Just like Long Island, it wasn’t the start we wanted,” Boyes said. “Toronto came out real hard at us. … We can’t keep falling behind like that.”
Legace stopped Nik Antropov, allowed a goal to Nikolai Kulemin and then stopped Pavel Kubina in the shootout to win it.
t in the opening period and Alexei Ponikarovsky made it 3-0 a little more than 2 minutes later.
“The Islanders’ home opener, they were pretty jazzed up, and the Leafs were coming off a tough loss in their home opener,” Boyes said. “They were pumped up to play and for some reason we didn’t respond. We responded in the second, but we have to learn we need to come out harder, especially on the road.”
In other NHL games Monday, it was the New York Rangers 4, New Jersey 1; Buffalo 7, the New York Islanders 1; Detroit 3, Carolina 1; Washington 5, Vancouver 1; Montreal 5, Philadelphia 3; and Nashville 3, Chicago 2 in a shootout.
After Boyes scored on a rebound of McDonald’s shot, St. Louis took advantage of a careless boarding penalty by the Leafs’ Ryan Hollweg nearly 2 minutes later.
Hollweg, back after serving a two-game suspension for collecting three boarding penalties in a 41-game span, is likely to face more discipline for his hit on Blues rookie defenseman Alex Pietrangelo.
“There’s a fine line you dance of being aggressive and then completely pulling back and we’ve got to work with him to find that fine line,” Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson said.
Pietrangelo may have somewhat turned into the hit, but Hollweg won’t get the benefit of the doubt from officials with his track record. A fourth boarding major is expected to earn Hollweg an automatic three-game suspension from the NHL.
Patrik Berglund scored on a rebound past a prone Vesa Toskala at 4:47 and Keith Tkachuk buried a feed from Paul Kariya at 5:35 to tie the score.
“You have to at least limit the damage and we didn’t,” Wilson said. “We allowed them right back into the game at that point.”
Niklas Hagman restored a lead for the Leafs at the 14-minute mark of the second period.
The Blues tied it at 4 at 4:21 of the third period on Kariya’s backhander to set up the dramatic finish in the only meeting of the season between the teams.
“We regrouped after a disappointing first period and found a way to get it going,” Blues coach Andy Murray said. “We’ve got time to talk about what happened in the first. But for now we can just enjoy the win.”
Rangers 4, Devils 1
Brandon Dubinsky had a goal and two assists, and linemate Aaron Voros had two goals and three points to help the host Rangers (5-0) match the team’s best start established in 1983.
Voros scored the second and third New York goals, the last coming on a deflection of defenseman Paul Mara’s shot that restored the Rangers’ two-goal lead 1:39 into the third.
Canadiens 5, Flyers 3
Roman Hamrlik and Michael Komisarek scored 44 seconds apart in the third period to help visiting Montreal rally.
Andrei Kostitsyn, Robert Lang and Steve Begin also scored for the Canadiens.
goals of the second to give the Flyers to a 2-1 lead going into the third. Simon Gagne had the Flyers’ last goal.
Red Wings 3, Hurricanes 1
Tomas Holmstrom and Nicklas Lidstrom scored in the first two periods to lead visiting Detroit. Ty Conklin added 27 saves to earn the win in his first appearance of the year, while Henrik Zetterberg added an empty-net score with in the final seconds to seal it.
Joe Corvo scored for Carolina, which lost for the first time this season.
Capitals 5, Canucks 1
Alexander Semin scored twice, Michael Nylander netted a penalty shot and host Washington limited Vancouver to only 10 shots on goal.
The Capitals broke a franchise record for shots by an opponent, having never before allowed fewer than 11 in a game. The Canucks barely avoided breaking their franchise low of eight.
Mike Green and Milan Jurcina also scored for Washington.
Sabres 7, Islanders 1
Thomas Vanek scored twice and Ales Kotalik and Jason Pominville each added a goal and two assists for visiting Buffalo.
Jochen Hecht, Adam Mair and Clarke MacArthur also scored and Patrick Lalime made 23 saves for the Sabres.
Predators 3, Blackhawks 2, SO
Rich Peverley and J.P. Dumont scored scored in the shootout to lift visiting Nashville.
s’ home opener. Ellis stopped Patrick Kane and Martin Havlat in the shootout to secure the win.
Havlat and Patrick Sharp each had a goal and an assist in regulation for Chicago.
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