Off Topic » After the St. Louis Blues caught the short

ST. LOUIS (AP) —end of the stick on an obscure NHL rule Adidas Jay Beagle Jersey , Ryan O’Reilly bailed them out with a breakaway winner.O’Reilly scored a short-handed goal 2:05 into overtime to lift St. Louis over the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Friday night.O’Reilly’s forehand finish was memorable, but the buzz postgame was about the call that put the Blues on the penalty kill to begin with.Vladimir Tarasenko was called for playing with illegal equipment after picking up teammate Colton Parayko’s stick. Blues interim coach Craig Berube said the penalty was called because the 6-foot-6 Parayko has an exemption to the NHL’s stick length rule. The 6-foot Tarasenko does not.“If it was somebody else’s stick, say it was (Jaden Schwartz’s) stick, he could pick it up and use it,” Berube said.O’Reilly scored 34 seconds later after being sprung by a pass from Robert Bortuzzo. That eased St. Louis’ frustration after the surprising penalty call.“I had no idea,” O’Reilly said of the rule. “I think our whole bench had no idea, but with the win tonight I don’t think we care. We got it done.”Parayko scored twice and Ivan Barbashev also had a goal for the Blues, who won for the third time in four games. Jake Allen made 39 saves including several game-savers late in the third and in overtime.J.T. Compher had a goal and an assist, and Sven Andrighetto and Matt Calvert also scored for the Avalanche, who dropped their third straight game. Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves, but lost for the first time in his last 10 starts.Avalanche coach Jared Bednar felt his team left a point on the table.“We’ve got our best players on the ice on a 4-3 power play and we give up a breakaway Adidas Curtis McKenzie Jersey ,” Bednar said. “It should be us putting a dagger through them and getting two points. It has to be. We have to better than that. The decision we make with the puck there, it cost us the game so that’s it.”Parayko put St. Louis ahead 3-2 with 9 minutes left in the third. It was the second career two-goal game for Parayko, the other coming on Oct. 13, 2015 at Calgary.Compher’s power-play goal tied it with 6:50 left.Parayko gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 3:24 of the first period with his second goal in four games on a one-timer from just inside the blue line.Andrighetto tied it on a breakaway at 5:42 of the first. It was his first goal in eight games.Calvert gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead at 9:48 of the first, beating Allen between the legs on a wrap-around for his fourth goal of the season.Barbashev tied it with 40 seconds left in the first. Jay Bouwmeester set it up with a perfect pass through the crease to a streaking Barbashev who tipped it in.“I just kind of threw it at the net so it was a good play by him because there really wasn’t anything else,” Bouwmeester said. “Go to the net and look what happens.”NOTES: The Blues signed F Alexei Toropchenko to a three-year, entry level contract. The 19-year-old from Moscow was drafted in the fourth round (113th overall) in the 2017 draft. … Avalanche RW Mikko Rantanen extended his points streak to 13 games with an assist on Compher’s goal and is tied with Washington’s Alex Ovechkin for the longest active streak in the league. … The Blues scratched D Joel Edmundson and LW Zach Sanford. … The Avalanche scratched D Mark Alt and D Alexander Kerfoot.UP NEXTColorado: hosts Dallas on Saturday.St. Louis: hosts Calgary on Sunday. ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The Boston Bruins have been trending in the right direction for a while.Jaroslav Halak is starting to round into form again.Halak made 30 saves in his fourth shutout of the season, and the Bruins beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-0 on Friday night for their fourth consecutive victory.“It’s a team effort all the time,” Halak said. “Like anytime we win a game or I get a shutout, it has to be everybody on the same page and I think tonight we were for 95 percent of it Adidas Nick Holden Jersey , and that makes you successful. We opened up the trip on the right note.”Noel Acciari and Jake DeBrusk scored for the Bruins, who have earned at least a point in nine consecutive games. Chris Wagner added an empty-netter with 1:31 remaining.Halak has won consecutive starts since a 1-4-2 stretch during which he allowed 23 goals. Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy attributed the rough patch to the defense’s inability to clear traffic from in front of the net and give the Slovakian goalie a chance to see the puck.“He had a real hot streak at the start, cooled off a little,” Cassidy said. “A product of both those streaks is usually the team in front of you. You play well, they keep the net clear, the goalie is going to look good.”Halak did his part, denying Corey Perry on an odd-man rush that was set up by Rickard Rakell’s stellar backhand pass in the opening minute of the second period.Halak also got some help when defenseman Brandon Carlo deflected Brandon Montour’s follow-up shot of a breakaway by Ducks rookie forward Max Jones late in the first period.Jones didn’t have the angle he wanted initially and hesitated to shoot after racing past three Bruins at the blue line, allowing Halak to square up and make the initial save.“A couple of times I got help from my D by clearing the puck or making a save for me, but I think it was a good effort,” said Halak, who got his 46th career shutout.Acciari put the Bruins in front 5:31 into the first period when he tipped Carlo’s powerful slap shot past Boyle Adidas Paul Stastny Jersey , ending a 16-game scoreless streak.The Bruins made it 2-0 on DeBrusk’s power-play goal 5:07 into the second. Anaheim goalie Kevin Boyle got caught out of position after challenging David Krejci, who easily skated past the rookie and fed DeBrusk for an easy tap-in. DeBrusk scored for the second straight game.“Yeah, I was grinding for that one, that’s for sure,” DeBrusk joked. “It was pretty much lying in the crease and I had a front-row view to it, and it was just nice to be in the right place at the right time and help the team.”The Ducks have dropped 20 of their past 23 games. They have been shut out three times in their past nine games and scored a total of nine goals in that span.“You can’t expect to shut teams out every night,” Ducks defenseman Josh Manson said. “It’s unfortunate, but we know we have to score. It doesn’t change anything for us.”Boyle made 26 saves.NOTES: Torey Krug had the secondary assist on DeBrusk’s goal, his sixth assist during a five-game streak. Krug has nine assists in his past nine games. . Anaheim was shut out for the sixth time this season. … Sean Kuraly had two assists.UP NEXTBruins: Visit Los Angeles on Saturday night.Ducks: Host Washington on Sunday night.