Noel Acciari scores twice as Blues hang on to beat Islanders

[December 07, 2022] Noel Acciari scored twice Tuesday night for the visiting St. Louis Blues, who frittered away most of a four-goal third-period lead before holding off the New York Islanders 7-4 in Elmont, N.Y.

Josh Leivo, Ivan Barbashev, Ryan O'Reilly, Colton Parayko and Robert Thomas all scored a goal apiece for the Blues, who snapped a four-game losing streak and won for just the second time in eight games (2-6-0). Thomas Greiss made 36 saves against the Islanders, for whom he played from 2015 through 2020.

Noah Dobson scored in the first before Zach Parise, Hudson Fasching and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored during the third-period flurry by the Islanders, who have lost three of four. Goalie Ilya Sorokin recorded 21 saves.

The teams traded goals within a 39-second span late in the first.

The Blues took a short-lived lead following a 2-on-1 in which Leivo, skating alongside O'Reilly, waited for Alexander Romanov to slide in between them before firing a shot under Sorokin's arm with 2:47 left.

Dobson quickly tied the score when he bore in on Greiss and scored off a backhanded pass from Mathew Barzal.

The Blues scored four unanswered goals in a span of just over 20 minutes bridging the second and third.

Barbashev capped another 2-on-1 with Romanov in the middle, 3:51 into the second, when Barbashev took a pass from William Bitten and beat Sorokin beyond his glove. O'Reilly dove around Romanov to put back the rebound of his own shot with 5:02 left in the second.

New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin (30) makes a save as St. Louis Blues left wing Brandon Saad (20) looks for a rebound during the first period at UBS Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Schneidler-USA TODAY Sports

The Blues looked like they had put the game away by scoring twice in a span of 13 seconds early in the third. Acciari redirected a shot by Justin Faulk at the 3:37 mark. Parayko extended the lead to 5-1 when he took a pass from Jordan Kyrou at center ice, skated a couple strides and beat Sorokin from the blue line.

The Islanders began mounting their comeback fewer than two minutes later, when Parise scored at the 5:36 mark. New York scored twice in a 21-second span. Fasching scored his first goal since March 2016 by getting a stick on Matt Martin's shot with 5:17 left. Then Pageau's backhand glanced off Thomas' leg and fluttered past Greiss.

The Islanders pulled Sorokin with about 2:20 left but didn't generate a threat before Thomas scored an empty-netter with 1:57 left. Acciari added another insurance goal 52 seconds later.

--Field Level Media

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