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 But the call was overturned on replay and ruled a good goal,
ultimately providing the winning margin in St. Louis' 2-1 victory
over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night at Amalie Arena.
"I'm at a loss for words," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "I
thought there was zero chance of that being turned over. I don't
know how you look at that ... my interpretation was that was a clear
a kick as you could possibly see ... It was a distinct kick. The ref
on the ice saw it 10 feet away and was adamantly calling it a
no-goal."
Tampa Bay pulled its goalie and scored with an extra attacker with
52 seconds left, so Berglund's goal proved the winning margin, even
if he didn't expect it.
"I put on the brakes and it bounced and went in," Berglund said of
his fourth goal of the season. "I didn't have my hopes up. I looked
at the ref right away and he obviously didn't confirm the goal. They
reviewed it and thought it was a good goal, so I'll take it and move
on."
St. Louis goalie Brian Elliott took a shutout in the final minute,
stopping the first 35 Tampa Bay shots
"We've got some big boys back there so we were able to get body
position really well," Elliott said. "They didn't really have much
shooting lanes or passing lanes, and when they did get a shot I was
able to see it. The guys played awesome."
St. Louis (32-17-9) got a goal in the opening minute of the second
period on a breakaway by center Robby Fabbri and made that lead
stick, even as they were outshot by a 38-21 margin. Tampa Bay
(30-21-4) has now lost three of its last four to drop into a tie for
the eighth and final playoff spot in the tightly bunched Eastern
Conference standings.
Tampa Bay pulled its goalie in the final two minutes and scored with
the extra attacker for the second game in a row, with right winger
Nikita Kucherov scoring his 23rd goal of the season to retake the
team lead with 52 seconds left. The Lightning were unable to tie the
game in the final minute, however.
"Give (Elliott) credit. He played good. We have to be a little bit
more gritty in front to get those chances," defenseman Braydon
Coburn said.
Scoring was sparse in the opening two periods, with the Blues taking
a 1-0 lead off a costly turnover in the opening minute of the second
period.
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Coming off a faceoff, the puck got past the Lightning defense,
leading to a two-on-none breakaway, with Fabbri beating Tampa Bay
goalie Ben Bishop for his 13th goal of the season. Fabbri took a
long pass from forward Paul Stastny, who picked up his 22nd assist
of the season on the play.
The goal came on just the fifth shot of the game for the Blues, who
had no shots in the first nine minutes and just three in the opening
period. While the Lightning had more opportunities -- a 23-14 edge
on shots entering the third period -- they weren't able to get any
of those past Elliott.
Lightning center Vladislav Namestnikov went hard into the boards in
the final minute of the second period and went directly to the
locker room, but he was back on the bench for the start of the third
period.
NOTES: The Lightning, playing the second game in a four-game,
seven-day homestand, had C Jonathan Marchessault and recent call-up
D Slater Koekkoek as healthy scratches, while St. Louis scratched RW
Dmitrij Jaskin, D Peter Harrold and LW Magnus Paajarvi. ... The
Blues, coming off a 5-3 road win against the Florida Panthers on
Friday, return home for two games, starting Tuesday against the
Dallas Stars. St. Louis came in with a 14-8-5 road record, while the
Lightning had built up an 18-8-2 home record, including nine
straight home wins, one short of tying a franchise record. ... The
Lightning swapped out backup goalies, with Andrei Vasilevskiy
recalled from Syracuse and Kristers Gudlevskis sent back down to the
AHL two days after the club made the opposite swap. The original
move was made to get Vasilevskiy more work in the minors.
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