Buffalo's Patrick Lalime turns aside one of St. Louis' 35 shots. Bill Greenblatt, UPI
Mike Grier scored his second goal of the game to tie it for Buffalo and Tim Connolly added a power-play and shorthanded goal as Buffalo scored three times in the third to beat the St. Louis Blues 5-3. Buffalo goalie Patrick Lalime turned aside 32 shots for the win.
Alex Steen had a pair of goals and Eric Brewer scored as the Blues fell to 6-12-2 on home ice. Brewer and Steen scored 6:10 apart in the second period to give St. Louis a 3-2 lead heading into the second intermission. Buffalo caught a break when Grier’s second goal trickled past Blues’ goalie Ty Conklin to tie the game just over three minutes into the third. After the game, Conklin called it a fluke goal. “I knew exactly where it was. I was looking at it. I just went to close my legs. … That probably won’t happen again in two years. It was a fluky goal, but it sets a bad tone for the third period.”
Buffalo scored just over three minutes later on Connolly’s power play goal which turned out to be the game winner. Steen, who now has six goals on the season following his two goal output was left off Sweden’s Olympic team along with teammate Patrik Berglund.
Sweden is the defending Gold Medal Olympic Champ from 2006.
