ST. LOUIS — Ryan O’Reilly scored 1:02 into overtime in his return from an injury to give the St. Louis Blues a 6-5 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Enterprise Center on Saturday.
O’Reilly, who missed 14 games because of a broken left foot, received a pass from Pavel Buchnevich and cut to the net for the winner after the Blues blew a three-goal lead in the third period.
“A nice play by ‘Buchy,'” O’Reilly said. “I just kind of crisscrossed it with him and saw I had a little lane there, so I just kind of got my young legs going and made a little move and it got by [Coyotes goalie Karel Vejmelka].”
Sammy Blais scored in his first game back with the Blues, Calle Rosen had two goals, and Buchnevich had three assists for St. Louis (24-25-3), which ended a five-game losing streak in its first game since Jan. 30. Jordan Binnington made 23 saves.
“We weren’t playing very quick in the first period, a little methodical and slow,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “Better as it went along, better second, better third. The third goal is a tough one, then we took a penalty. Our penalty kill wasn’t sharp tonight I don’t think. We shouldn’t have given up either goal. The tying goal, 6-on-5, we just didn’t return hard enough to the middle of the ice.
“I liked a lot of things in the game, especially the second and the third. I thought we did some real good things offensively, and I liked our forecheck a lot tonight.”
Clayton Keller had two goals and two assists, Nick Schmaltz had a goal and three assists, and Juuso Valimaki had four assists for the Coyotes (17-28-8), who were coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday. Vejmelka made 31 saves.
Arizona scratched defenseman Jakob Chychrun before the game due to trade-related reasons.
“We have a job to do,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “‘Chych’ is a great guy, but there is a situation there that concerns him, our GM, our organization, obviously, and his agent. It’s their job to deal with it, not my job.”
Keller scored from a sharp angle at 9:47 of the third period to cut it to 5-3, and Nick Bjugstad scored Arizona’s second power-play goal on the doorstep at 13:14 to make it 5-4.
With Vejmelka then pulled for an extra attacker, Lawson Crouse scored five-hole from the slot at 19:03 to tie the game 5-5.
“We came back strong in the third,” Tourigny said. “It was urgent. That’s the thing I had in mind. Everybody was focused on coming back in that game and playing well. Today was a good day.”
Keller gave Arizona a 1-0 lead 51 seconds into the first period when he followed up his own rebound and scored with a backhand.
Schmaltz made it 2-0 at 9:31 with a power-play goal when his return pass through the crease deflected in off Blues defenseman Colton Parayko‘s left skate.
“We wanted to pressure them,” Keller said. “We know that was their first game after the [All-Star] break. We know it’s tough, the first one, so we wanted to get on them early. I thought we showed a lot of resiliency.”
Brandon Saad cut it to 2-1 at 10:20 of the second period, following up his own breakaway after splitting two defenders and banking a shot in off Vejmelka from below the goal line.
Blais tied it 2-2 at 17:19, receiving a stretch pass from Nick Leddy after exiting the penalty box and finshing with a backhand.
Blais, who was acquired from the Rangers on Thursday in the trade for forward Vladimir Tarasenko, played his the first four NHL seasons with the Blues (2017-21) and won the Stanley Cup with them in 2019.
“It felt really good,” Blais said. “My first goal of the season, obviously. Coming back to St. Louis and scoring in my first game, I couldn’t have asked for better than that.
“I can’t even describe it. It was just a nice pass by Leddy. Just happy I got this one out of the way, and I’ll just keep moving forward.”
Robert Thomas gave the Blues a 3-2 lead at 1:27 of the third period with a wrist shot glove side from the high slot after Jordan Kyrou won a puck he originally lost along the boards.
Rosen made it 4-2 at 6:44, joining the rush and scoring from the slot. He scored again to make it 5-2 at 8:33 on a shot from the right circle.
“I think we started playing the right way a bit more in the second period already,” Rosen said. “We felt good coming in the third, and I think we showed it the first 10 minutes at least.
“Definitely not the first period we wanted and second half of the third, not what we wanted, but it’s good to come out with two points, and that was the big part today.”
NOTES: Blais’ was his first goal in 57 games dating to May 1, 2021. He did not score in 54 games with the New York Rangers the past two seasons. … O’Reilly won 18-of-26 face-offs (69.2 percent) in 17:25 of ice time. … Buchnevich played 21:43 in his return after missing four games with an ankle infection. … Thomas returned after missing two games with a lower-body injury. He played 22:40 and also won 73.3 percent of his face-offs (11-of-15). … Keller has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past three games. … Schmaltz has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in his past seven games. … Coyotes defenseman Victor Soderstrom played 11:52 in his season debut, and defenseman Dysin Mayo had one hit in 9:09 in his first game since Nov. 23. Each was recalled from Tucson of the American Hockey League on Saturday.
