SUNRISE, Fla. — Jordan Kyrou scored his second goal of the game at 1:08 of overtime, and the St. Louis Blues rallied from a three-goal, third-period deficit to defeat the Florida Panthers 5-4 at FLA Live Arena on Saturday.
Kyrou scored on a breakaway after taking a pass from Torey Krug from behind the St. Louis net.
“We made eye contact and that’s just something that we’ve been working on for a while,” Krug said. “I’ve iced a few pucks that we like to see end up on a stick, but luckily we connected on this one.”
Ryan O’ReillyKyrou and Vladimir Tarasenko scored consecutive goals in the third for the Blues (11-10-0), who were playing their third game in four days. Thomas Greiss made 33 saves.
Kyrou extended his point streak to eight games (12 points; five goals, seven assists), O’Reilly, Tarasenko and Brandon Saad each had a goal and an assist, and Krug had two assists.
Video: STL@FLA: Blues score three in 3rd, win it in overtime
Kyrou said that in the dressing room following the second period, the Blues said, “‘Let’s not let this, [being] down by however many goals, just affect us and just quit, and let’s go out there and let’s play.’ Yeah, it was just a crazy comeback.”
Sam Reinhart and Gustav Forsling each had two assists, and Spencer Knight made 32 saves for the Panthers (10-8-3), who led 3-0 midway through the first period.
“I thought we did a very good job in the first two and in the third we made mistakes that are not usual for us, and it cost us,” Florida defenseman Rakdo Gudas said. “The biggest thing is to learn from it and forget it, remember the mistake and forget about the loss. It is going to happen. We can’t always be the team that comes back. Sometimes that is going to bite you.”
O’Reilly began the St. Louis comeback when he cut it to 4-2 at 8:16 of the third by banking the puck off the leg of Knight from behind the net.
Kyrou made it 4-3 at 13:43 with a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle after taking a feed from Krug.
“I mean, he’s a special player,” Krug said. “So when you see him with a lot of speed, I was just trying to look up and make their whole group shift a little bit so I can get him in some open ice. Just put it on his tape, and he’s a special player and he’ll make something out of nothing sometimes.”
Tarasenko tied it 4-4 from the left hash mark at 16:11.
Aaron Ekblad gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 1:20 with a turnaround wrist shot after he picked up a loose puck in the slot.
Video: STL@FLA: Ekblad scores for early Panthers lead
Gudas made it 2-0 at 2:58 with a wrist shot from the point after stopping a clearing attempt.
Carter Verhaeghe made it 3-0 at 8:47 on a breakaway after taking a feed from Reinhart.
“You have to skate and you have to make plays. You can’t sit on anything,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Maybe even to the 10-minute mark (of the third period) we were fine, then they made a push and we didn’t handle it well. … When it got to 4-2, you could feel us back off and not be confident or direct with the puck. You can’t play a tentative game.”
The Blues cut it to 3-1 at 11:39 when Saad poked in a loose puck in front of Knight.
Anton Lundell pushed the lead to 4-1 with a shorthanded goal at 12:50 of the second when he redirected Reinhart’s pass on a 2-on-1 as a Florida penalty was expiring.
“Great comeback win,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “Guys really pulled it together. We didn’t have the start we wanted for sure, but in the second period we settled in a little bit more but still didn’t play the right kind of hockey we needed to play to be successful, but we did in the third. So that’s good on the guys.”
NOTES: The Panthers were one skater short with 17 (11 forwards, six defensemen) because center Alexander Barkov (non-COVID illness) was scratched. … Blues forward Brayden Schenn didn’t play in the third period because of a lower-body injury. Berube said he’d be reevaluated Sunday. …St. Louis fell behind 3-0 in the first 8:04 of its 5-2 loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday.
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