Blues pull away from Maple Leafs in third period

TORONTO --The St. Louis Blues scored three goals in the third period to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

"I think we played pretty solid all three periods," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "I thought we did a good job of protecting the middle of the ice, especially in our end. They're a very good team finding it. Third period we let a couple slip there, but our goalie came up big for us in the third and made some big saves. We scored on our opportunities tonight and stayed out of the penalty box."
Pavel Buchnevich scored twice, and Ville Husso made 34 saves for the Blues (29-14-6), who are 3-0-1 in their past four and were without forward Vladimir Tarasenko, who is day to day with an undisclosed injury.
"We did a good job of skating and forechecking well, and when we did that, we got the puck back and had some good looks," Blues captain Ryan O'Reilly said. "Scoring six goals is always good, especially against that team, who is very good, and only giving up three is good against them. It's always a tough challenge.
"We were disappointed with that effort (a 3-2 overtime loss at the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday). It wasn't a complete game. I thought we were more engaged tonight, we were more physical at times. It was just a more complete game."

William Nylander scored twice, and Jack Campbell made 28 saves for the Maple Leafs (32-13-3), who had won seven straight at home.
"We lost, so it was not good enough, but we've got practice tomorrow," Campbell said. "We'll work hard and get back at it.
"They're a dangerous team. They're really good off the rush; we knew that going in. They capitalized on their chances. They're a really good team."

Brandon Saad gave St. Louis a 4-3 lead at 4:38 of the third when he took a pass from David Perron near the top of the crease and shot into an open net. It was his 200th NHL goal.
O'Reilly made it 5-3 at 10:50 when he redirected a point shot from Niko Mikkola.
"For myself, not scoring a lot of goals lately, that's where they're going to come, by me getting to the net," said O'Reilly, who had scored once in his previous nine games. "It was a great shot pass by 'Miko,' and I was able to get a little tip on it."
Buchnevich scored an empty-net goal at 16:43 for the 6-3 final. He has scored nine points (three goals, six assists) during a five-game point streak.
"They have a lot of skill. They're one of the top teams in the NHL on the rush, and we knew that going into the game that it was going to be a challenge for us to defend against that, and they got the better of us," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. "We didn't do a good enough job. They've been doing that pretty consistently to everybody in the league.
"They're as dangerous as any team in the NHL on the rush, and they showed that tonight."
The Blues took a 1-0 lead at 2:58 of the first period when Buchnevich put in the rebound of Jordan Kyrou's shot.
Klim Kostin made it 2-0 at 11:40, taking a cross-ice pass from Tyler Bozak and scoring blocker side from the right circle.
"We've been getting contributions all year from everybody, and we've got to continue to do that," Berube said. "It was really nice tonight that we got all four lines involved in the offense, and Husso did a great job shutting that game down for us."

Nylander cut it to 2-1 at 15:33 when he carried the puck on a 2-on-1 and beat Husso blocker side. He then tied it 2-2 at 5:30 of the second period, this time shooting glove side from the left circle on a 3-on-2.
Brayden Schenn scored off his rebound 29 seconds later to put St. Louis back in front 3-2.
"Campbell robbed me on the first one, but it was one of those things where I got the bounce on the rebound and I was able to elevate it over his pad on the second one," Schenn said.
TJ Brodie tied it 3-3 at 17:46 with a slap shot through a screen.
NOTES:The Blues are 14-1-1 with one tie in their past 17 games in Toronto dating to April 1, 1998. … St. Louis defenseman Justin Faulk had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (one goal, five assists). … Perron and forward Robert Thomas each had two assists. … Nylander ended an eight-game goal drought. … Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews had his nine-game point streak end. ... Following the game, the Maple Leafs acquired forward Ryan Dzingel and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes for forward Nick Ritchie and an NHL Draft pick.