Perron, Binnington lift Blues to 3-2 victory over Sharks
ST. LOUIS (AP) - David Perron is making a late push for an All-Star selection.
Perron scored his 18th goal of the season and Jordan Binnington stopped 28 shots, leading the St. Louis Blues to a 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.
Perron is on the 'œLast Man In'ť vote list. This is the second straight year the NHL will allow fans to select four players from a list of 31 potential All-Stars (one from each team). The voting closes Friday.
'œHe's making a good case for himself,'ť Binnington said. 'œI really hope he gets in there. He really deserves it. He's playing the best hockey I've ever seen him play. He's working well with the boys and the boys love him.'ť
Tyler Bozak and Ivan Barbashev also scored for St. Louis, which has won six straight at home. Timo Meier and Erik Karlsson notched San Jose's goals.
This was the first matchup between the teams in St. Louis since the Blues eliminated the Sharks in Game 6 of last year's Western Conference Final. St. Louis won 5-2 in San Jose on Dec. 21.
The Blues are 8-3-1 in their last 12 regular-season games against the Sharks.
San Jose center Logan Couture, who is in his 11th season, was helped off the ice at 12:27 of the second period and did not return. Couture and St. Louis' Vince Dunn collided and went into the boards. Couture was favoring his left knee, which he banged into the boards. He leads the Sharks with 36 points - 14 goals and 22 assists.
'œIt's big-time concerning, even if it's just a couple games or whatever, if it's a couple weeks,'ť San Jose coach Bob Boughner said. 'œHe's a catalyst of our offense, penalty kill and everything. It'll be a tough loss but hopefully it's not too long and it's a day-to-day thing, so we'll have a better idea about that tomorrow. When a guy like that goes down, everybody is very shocked.'ť
Couture has a walking boot on, Boughner said.
'œI know they did X-rays,'ť Boughner said. 'œI believe they're negative, but we're going to reassess him again tomorrow.'ť
St. Louis scored two goals 80 seconds apart in the second period to take a 2-0 lead.
Bozak scored at 5:39 of the second. Alexander Steen dropped a pass back between his legs to Bozak, who snapped a wrist shot from the right circle. It was Bozak's fourth goal in his last six games.
St. Louis made it 2-0 when Barbashev scored at 6:59. Barbashev missed a breakaway shot that was blocked by San Jose goalie Aaron Dell, who had 24 saves. Couture got the rebound but Oskar Sundqvist stole the puck. He passed to Barbashev, who scored from just outside the crease. It was Barbashev's first goal since Dec. 7.
San Jose got within 2-1 on a power-play goal at 2:14 of the third period. Meier scored on a slap shot from the top of the right circle. It was his 15th goal this season. Meier has seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past six games.
St. Louis got the two-goal lead back when Perron scored on a wrist shot from the top of the left circle. Ryan O'Reilly won the faceoff and the puck went to Perron, whose shot hit the hand of San Jose's Stefan Noesen and tumbled end-over-end into the net at 4:07.
'œO'Reilly won it clean and it went off someone and went in,'ť Perron said. 'œWe've connected quite a bit over the course of 44 games. I'd say we've scored three, four or five goals off faceoffs. We'll take them.'ť
Perron has scored six goals and recorded eight assists in his last 10 games.
'œHe's been a good player for us all year,'ť St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. 'œThat was a big goal he got there after we gave up one. He comes through in the clutch.'ť
An offsides call cost the Blues a goal at 12:25. Jordan Kyrou found the net but was ruled offsides after a replay review.
Karlsson scored at 16:50 to make it 3-2. He backhanded the puck from behind the goal into the crease, and O'Reilly inadvertently knocked it in.
'œIn general it wasn't a terrible game from us, but again it's all about the wins,'ť Karlsson said. 'œWe've got to find a way to get that done. It's one of those games where you're kind of not happy, kind of not completely disappointed, but at the end of the day we are where we are and we need the wins so this was a tough one for us to lose.'ť
NOTES: Sharks C Joe Thornton needs one game to tie Ray Bourque (1,612) for 11th place on NHL all-time list. ... Blues D Colton Parayko missed his second game and is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. ... Niko Mikkola, a fifth-round draft pick in 2015, made his NHL debut as he filled in for Parayko.
UP NEXT
Sharks: Host Columbus on Thursday.
Blues: Host Buffalo on Thursday.
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