Binnington responds again for Blues in Game 2 of Cup Final

BOSTON-- Jordan Binnington dropped his head twice early in the first period of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final and the St. Louis Blues goalie seemed stunned.

Binnington allowed Charlie Coyle to score between his legs on a power play at 4:44 of the first period on the first shot by the Boston Bruins, and looked upward after allowing a goal to Joakim Nordstrom at 10:17 that gave the Bruins another lead on their fifth shot.
But instead of getting rattled, Binnington got back to his business as usual and helped St. Louis win a Stanley Cup Final game for the first time, 3-2 in overtime at TD Garden to even the best-of-7 series.
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"It's the life of a goaltender," said Binnington, who is 13-8 with a 2.37 goals-against average and .915 save percentage this postseason. "You keep moving forward and regroup. Just trying to be there and give your team a chance to win and keep that mindset."
He is 12-2-0 after a loss in his NHL career, including 6-2 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and he's the third NHL rookie to get his team's first 13 wins in a postseason. Patrick Roy with the Montreal Canadiens in 1986 and Ron Hextall with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1987 each won 15.
"He played well," Blues center Brayden Schenn said of Binnington. "He obviously wasn't happy with his first two he gave up. He shut the door, and obviously we're going to need him to be good."

Binnington's six wins following a playoff loss trail Nikolai Khabibulin (8-0 in 2004, Tampa Bay Lightning), Miikka Kiprusoff (8-3 in 2004, Calgary Flames), Hextall (8-2 in 1987), Henrik Lundqvist (7-4 in 2014, New York Rangers) and Marc-Andre Fleury (7-2 in 2009, Pittsburgh Penguins).
"That's what he does. He's so calm in there," Blues center Oskar Sundqvist said of Binnington. "He makes us ... I don't think he can do anything on the goals. I think that's our fault, and we need to play better for him. But he's responding so well. Even when he lets two goals in, he comes up big. That's what he does."
Binnington made 18 saves after allowing the two goals, including a point-blank pad save on Patrice Bergeron with 2:38 remaining in the third period, then back-to-back saves on Brad Marchand with 1:02 and 51 seconds left before a last save on David Pastrnak with 46 seconds to go.
Carl Gunnarsson scored 3:51 into overtime to give St. Louis a Cup Final win after 13 straight losses in the championship series. Game 3 is at St. Louis on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS).

"Nice to see the boys responded quickly," Binnington said. "That's huge, and I just try to be there when the boys needed me and give the team a chance to win. It was a hard-fought game, and the boys played a great game, disciplined game. We played a team game for 60 minutes, well, more than 60 minutes, I guess. I think we deserved that win tonight. Happy to go home 1-1."
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