St. Louis Blues at Seattle Kraken

Pavel Buchnevich scores twice and Blues rally for 4-3 overtime win over Kraken

Pavel Buchnevich scored his second goal of the game 3:31 into overtime and the Blues beat the Seattle Kraken 4-3 on Friday night.

St. Louis, which trailed 3-1 in the second period, won its fourth straight game and picked up two points in the crowded race for one of the Western Conference's wild-card spots.

And they completed an impressive three-game road trip, rallying from a two-goal deficit to beat Calgary, topping Vancouver in overtime and finishing the trip with a comeback win in Seattle. All three games finished 4-3.

“We’re committed more to the standards that we’re asking for our guys and we’re starting to see that, and I think that has to do with resiliency,” interim St. Louis coach Drew Bannister said. “But I think guys are just more focused on what they can control right now and the things that we can’t control aren’t a distraction.”

Buchnevich scored his 15th goal of the season 1:27 into the third period to pull the Blues even at 3, beating Joey Daccord to the glove side off a feed from Robert Thomas.

St. Louis controlled the puck and had the better chances early in overtime and Buchnevich brought a perfect end to the Blues’ road trip by beating Daccord off a feed from Brayden Schenn.

Buchnevich finished with three points.

“He could not give me (a) better pass,” Buchnevich said. “I just got to hit the net lately. I miss the net a lot, so it's good I hit the net right now.”

St. Louis (52 points) moved within one point of both Nashville and Los Angeles in the wild-card race, while Seattle (50 points) moved three points back. Both the Kraken and Blues have two games remaining before the All-Star break.

Thomas scored his 17th goal on a power play late in the second period that turned the momentum for St. Louis after Seattle had controlled most of the period. Oskar Sundqvist also scored on the power play 7:39 into the first period for St. Louis.

Jordan Binnington made 33 saves for the Blues.

Oliver Bjorkstrand had a goal and an assist for Seattle, but the Kraken lost for the fifth time in six games. Eeli Tolvanen and Brian Dumoulin also scored for the Kraken.

“It’s probably a game I think we probably should win. I thought we played good enough,” Bjorkstrand said. "Unfortunately, they found a way to tie it and from there we couldn’t really get that last goal.”

Bjorkstrand’s power-play goal 3:55 into the second period came moments after Daccord stopped a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush by the Blues. The save led to a breakout for Seattle and eventually Bjorkstrand’s sixth power-play goal of the season.

Bjorkstrand was also the reason for Tolvanen’s goal less than three minutes later. Bjorkstrand’s backcheck on Scott Perunovich led to a steal and Tolvanen eventually finished the play off a pass from Yanni Gourde.

But Seattle lamented the missed chances that could have given them a fourth goal. None was bigger than Jaden Schwartz missing an open net late in second period that would have given Seattle a 4-2 lead.

Daccord made 14 saves for the Kraken.

“It's a tough point to lose. We played hard. We played a pretty good hockey game,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said.

UP NEXT

Blues: Return home to face Los Angeles on Sunday.

Kraken: Close out their homestand against Columbus on Sunday.

STL leads series 2-0