Blues rally with three straight goals, defeat Lightning in shootout

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues scored three straight goals to rally for a 4-3 shootout win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.

Ivan Barbashev tied it with a power-play goal early in the third period for the Blues (12-7-3), who trailed 3-0 at 5:29 of the first period. Jordan Binnington made 30 saves and was perfect in the shootout.
"Just a lot of leadership in that room, just a lot of hockey to play, and a lot of time to get it back," St. Louis forward Logan Brown said. "This is a great team, so I think we can score goals when we play that way. So, just no panic in our game and just keep battling and playing our game."
Erik Cernak and Corey Perry scored five seconds apart, and Brian Elliott made 30 saves for the Lightning (12-5-4). They played without forward Steven Stamkos, who left prior to the game for the birth of his second child.
Tampa Bay had a chance to win it in overtime with a 4-on-3 power play after Blues forward Jordan Kyrou took a hooking penalty at 46 seconds but could not score.
"We went to overtime, we had our chances, but we didn't get it done," Lightning coach Job Cooper said. "We were a tired group at the end there."
Anthony Cirelli scored the first of three Lightning goals in 3:27 when he poked in a loose puck at 2:02 of the first period to make it 1-0.
Perry gave Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead with a power-play goal at 5:24, and Cernak's shot off the glass on the ensuing face-off caromed towards the goal and went off Binnington's right pad and between his legs at 5:29 to make it 3-0.
"It's human nature to kind of take your foot off the gas a little bit when you get an early lead like that," Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh said.

Binnington responded after Blues coach Craig Berube chose not to pull him after the fluky third goal. He made 16 saves over the second and third periods and three in overtime.
"He's our guy, we know that," Berube said. "There was no reason to pull him other than the momentum swing maybe for our team, but I didn't want to take him out for that purpose. I didn't feel that that was the right move. I can't fault him on the goals, so I'm not going to pull him."
Ryan O'Reilly cut it to 3-1 when he scored from the slot at 3:15 of the second.
"I think we just kind of reset on the bench," O'Reilly said. "There were bad bounces and they kind of were just shooting everything, going to the net, getting chaos, got some goals early and put us on our heels. But it was a good thing we settled and took a deep breath, all of us, and started to chip away, started getting back, winning battles and just kind of getting on our toes a bit more and started to build it."
Brown, who was recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Sunday, scored on a wrist shot from the left circle through a screen at 6:13 to make it 3-2.
Barbashev scored in his third straight game, a power-play goal at 1:11 of the third period, to tie it 3-3.
O'Reilly scored the only goal of the shootout in the second round. Binnington made saves against Perry and Ross Colton after Victor Hedman hit the post in the first round.
NOTES:The teams will play again in Tampa on Thursday. … The two goals in five seconds set a Lightning record. They scored twice in nine seconds three times, most recently against the New York Islanders on March 25, 2016. … Perry extended his point streak to five games (three goals, two assists). ... Cernak played 19:48 after missing eight games because of an upper-body injury. ... Forward Alex Killorn played his 662nd game with the Lightning, tying Pavel Kubina for fifth in their history. ... St. Louis has won five straight against Tampa Bay, dating to Dec. 12, 2017. ... Binnington is 5-0-0 in his NHL career against the Lightning. ... Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich had an assist to extend his point streak to four games (four goals, three assists). He has scored 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in the past 12 games. ... Barbashev has four goals during his goal streak. ... The Blues were without forward Tyler Bozak, who was placed in COVID-19 protocol Tuesday. … Brown's father, Jeff Brown, played for the Blues from 1989-94 and scored 294 points (80 goals, 214 assists) in 329 regular-season games.