Playing their fourth game in six nights, the St. Louis Blues had little left in the tank. The Tampa Bay Lightning had plenty of juice, but the Blues had an equalizer that provided enough ammunition to counter their dangerous opponent. In hockey terms, that player is the last line of defense. On Tuesday, it was goalie Brian Elliott. Elliott made 30 saves, and he had an assist on Jaden Schwartz's game-winning goal in overtime to help the Blues defeat the Lightning 2-1 at Scottrade Center. Per Elias Sports Bureau, Elliott became the first Blues goalie since Darrell May to get an assist on an overtime goal since Nov. 3, 1985 against the Winnipeg Jets. He is 8-0-1 in his past 10 starts (he was pulled in the first period of a 5-4 shootout win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 10). Elliott, who leads the NHL with a 1.95 goals-against average and is fourth in save percentage at .929, made several timely saves throughout the game. Many came after the Lightning had a 1-0 lead. Schwartz, who stick-handled through a couple Lightning players, beat defenseman Victor Hedman and shot it past goalie Ben Bishop from in close after the Blues (33-13-4) rallied from a 1-0 deficit late in the game. St. Louis got a goal from Tarasenko and tied a Blues record with a point in 12 straight games (11-0-1, matching a feat they accomplished during the 2000-01 season). They have won six in a row and remain two points behind the Nashville Predators in the Central Division after the Predators defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3. The Lightning (32-15-5) got a goal from Cedric Paquette. Bishop came back to his hometown and made 16 saves. Tampa Bay was 3:10 away from its first-ever shutout of St. Louis, but Tarasenko changed that with one flick of the wrist. The Lightning thought they played the better game but in the end, dropped their fourth straight on the road (0-3-1). Tarasenko got the puck when Paul Stastny won a faceoff draw to the left of Bishop back to him. Tarasenko wasted no time and took a wrist shot from outside the top of the right circle and got it past Bishop high and to the glove side to tie the game. Paquette has six goals in four games and scored 5:20 into the first period when he followed up Alex Killorn's initial shot. Elliott left a big rebound in the left circle and Paquette scored his 11th of the season. Paquette became the first rookie in Lightning history to score in four straight games. The Lightning outshot the Blues 11-2 in the first period. Elliott kept it a one-goal game with a couple of key saves on Ryan Callahan and Hedman, each off a rebound. Each team had terrific scoring opportunities to score in the second period, but the goaltenders came up with big saves. Elliott had the two biggest, one on Callahan in alone off a turnover 7:27 into the period, and a second against Nikita Kucherov off a 2-on-1 with Tyler Johnson midway through. Valtteri Filppula missed a great chance to give the Lightning a 2-0 lead moments later, but his shot from the left of Elliott missed the open side and caromed off the post. Bishop, who saw little action early, came up big with a right pad save on a Carl Gunnarsson backhand shot from the slot to keep it a 1-0 game late in the period. But it was Elliott who kept the Blues within one shot of tying the game and perhaps winning it. He made two big saves on Paquette with under eight minutes to play in the third.
Blues Quotes
Ken Hitchcock: "Yeah, we needed him tonight. Four in six, four in five-and-a-half, whatever you want to count. We had nothing. We had probably a little bit in the second period. We pushed a little bit, but we had nothing. He gave us a chance and then [Vladimir Tarasenko] came through again and it was a great goal by [Schwartz], but we needed our goalie tonight and he came through for us. That's what's so unique about [Tarasenko]. There's people that score goals, but he's so unique. He blew it right through [Bishop]. Everybody played a little bit tired today, but in still doing that, he had four or five great scoring chances."Brian Elliott: "I don't think we had the juice that we normally do, but we still [ground] it out. We battled. We had a couple timely goals. ... They're a good team. They showed it, and they really come at you hard."
Jaden Schwartz: "[Chris Butler] did a great job first of all driving the middle [then passed him the puck before scoring]. He kind of took the other defenseman or forward, whoever it was, and kind of gave me a chance to have a 1-on-1 play there. Puck kind of bounced to my foot and tried to kick it up and kind of had a little bit of half-breakaway on [Bishop]. Lucky bounce there. Game happens fast. Once I got the puck, I wasn't really thinking too much. [Elliott] was really good. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have won. ... We weren't the best in front of him, but he gave us a chance."
Alex Pietrangelo: "Sometimes you need your goalie to keep you in games and win you games. Tonight was another example. We've had a really tough schedule the last little bit here. We're going to need everybody on board, including the goalies. They've really stepped up to the challenge. They've been fantastic. We were a little bit slow in our puck decisions, we were slow to get to position, some bouncing pucks out there didn't help the cause. It's a good learning lesson for us and we'll move on to Buffalo [on Thursday]."
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