ST. LOUIS (AP) Carter Hutton felt relaxed and in control.
The St. Louis goalie stopped 24 shots through overtime and both attempts he faced in the shootout to help the Blues to a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.
”Some nights the (puck) looks like a BB and some nights it looks like a beach ball, it’s so easy to save,” Hutton said.
Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko scored in the tiebreaker to give St. Louis its ninth straight win against New Jersey, dating back to a 7-1 loss to the Devils on Jan. 21, 2014. Tarasenko and Vladimir Sobotka scored in regulation for the Blues, who have a 30-11 scoring edge during the win streak.
Hutton improved to 7-3-0 on the season. He made an eye-popping pad save on Marcus Johansson with 2:09 left in overtime, and then stopped Taylor Hall and Kyle Palmieri in the shootout.
”That was huge, ”Sobotka said of Hutton’s stop on Johansson. ”It was his game tonight.”
Nico Hischier and Hall scored for New Jersey. Keith Kinkaid made 27 stops through overtime, but failed on both shootout shots. The Devils have lost three straight.
New Jersey, which finished last in the Eastern Conference last season, is second in the Metropolitan Division – two points behind first-place Washington.
Hall tied the score at 2-2 by banking a shot off the back of Hutton from a wide angle at 1:17 of the third period. The power play goal was the first in 24 chances for the Devils.
Jesper Bratt appeared to give New Jersey a 3-2 lead six minutes into the third but the goal was disallowed due to Johansson being offside on the entry after a four-minute video review.
”That’s a tough call, but that’s the way it is sometimes,” Johansson said. ”Not much you can do about it.”
Tarasenko scored his 17th goal of the season midway through the opening period, tying Schenn for the team lead and giving St. Louis a 1-0 lead.
Hischier tipped in a shot by Sami Vatanen to tie it with 7 1/2 minutes left in the second period.
”In the first period, we got put on our heels a little bit,” New Jersey coach John Hynes said. ”But I really like the way we came back. It was a good game for our team to play against a very well-coached team.”
Sobotka then put St. Louis ahead with just under two minutes to go in the period.
NOTES: St. Louis has won back-to-back games for first time since Dec. 9-10 and beat New Jersey for the 12th time in the last 13 meetings. … The Blues play just 11 games in January after 16 in December. … New Jersey D Mirco Mueller has started skating. He has missed the last 22 games with a fractured clavicle suffered on Nov. 12. … St. Louis has won an NHL-best 20 games when leading after the second period.
UP NEXT
Devils: At Dallas on Thursday night in the third game of a four-game trip.
Blues: Host Vegas on Thursday night.
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