Pittsburgh Penguins at St. Louis Blues

Jimmy Snuggerud scores twice, leads Blues back from 3-goal deficit to beat Penguins 7-5

Pittsburgh raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first period despite resting most of its regular players, including Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, with the playoffs looming this weekend. The Blues surged ahead with five consecutive goals in a span of just over 20 minutes, with Holloway and Pavel Buchnevich scoring 44 seconds apart in the third period.

Holloway gave St. Louis its first lead 4:11 into the third on a wrister from the slot that to the stick side against Arturs Silovs, who relieved Stuart Skinner for the third period and made seven saves. Buchnevich added a breakaway goal for his 19th of the season.

Rookie Avery Hayes scored twice for his second career multigoal game, and the Penguins also got goals from Rutger McGroarty, Anthony Mantha and Elmer Soderblom. Hayes' second goal pulled Pittsburgh within one goal with 7:40 to play.

Holloway added an empty-netter to secure the Blues' win in their home finale. Jordan Binnington had 18 saves.

Stuart Skinner stopped 17 of 21 shots before getting pulled after St. Louis scored three times in the second period.

The Penguins scored on three of their first six shots despite resting half of their regular lineup. In addition to Crosby and Malkin, Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, Samuel Girard, Blake Lizotte, Connor Dewar and Parker Wotherspoon were scratched with Pittsburgh already locked into its playoff position.

Up next St. Louis concludes its season Thursday night at playoff-bound Utah.

Pittsburgh awaits a first-round playoff matchup against in-state rival Philadelphia

Series tied 1-1