Joel Hofer made 34 saves through regulation and overtime and added three more stops in the shootout as the St. Louis Blues edged visiting Tampa Bay 3-2 on Friday to snap the Lightning’s 11-game winning streak.
Jordan Kyrou scored the decisive shootout goal and earned an assist for the Blues, who won their second straight game. Jake Neighbours and Nick Bjugstad scored regulation goals for St. Louis.
Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist for the Lightning, who fell one victory short of setting a team record. Tampa Bay also won 11 straight in the 2019-20 season.
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored, Darren Raddysh earned two assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves for the Lightning.
Tampa Bay sustained pressure for the first 17 minutes of the game, but Hofer made 11 saves to keep the visitors off the scoreboard. Then the Blues scored two goals late in the frame to a take a 2-0 lead.
With 2:57 left in the period, Neighbours put the Blues on top after Kyrou’s shot from the slot caromed to him on the open right side.
Bjugstad scored 30 seconds later to make it 2-0. Pavel Buchnevich stole the puck on the forecheck and set up Bjugstad’s shot from the left circle.
The Lightning stabilized while killing a penalty that extended into the second period, and then they tied the game 2-2 by scoring twice with the man advantage.
Kucherov scored a 5-on-3 power-play goal from the right circle midway through the second period, then he set up Bjorkstrand’s 5-on-4 goal from the slot just over a minute later.
The Lightning sustained pressure through the rest of the period while building a 15-5 shot edge. Tampa Bay finished with another power play that carried over to the third period.
The Blues killed it off, with Hofer stopping three shots — including Jake Guentzel’s shot from the low slot — to keep the game tied.
St. Louis controlled the puck for much of the overtime, but Vasilevskiy made four saves to force the shootout.
–Field Level Media
