Pavel Buchnevich did everything he could to help the St. Louis Blues remain undefeated.
The forward continued his scoring ways in the early going of the season with two goals and an assist, accounting for all the scoring on Friday against the Vegas Golden Knights but it wasn’t enough in a 4-3 defeat for the first loss of the season to end a season-opening three-game road trip.
After not scoring a point in the season opener, a 3-2 win against the Seattle Kraken, Buchnevich now has four points (three goals, one assist) the past two games and is a team-leading plus-5 after playing 20:39 on Friday with a team-high four shots on goal but was just 2-for-10 (20 percent) on face-offs, something he’s been working on a lot in practices.
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Buchnevich’s first goal was a beauty after taking a Jordan Kyrou near the left side of the blue line, cutting inside past Noah Hanifin to his backhand and beating Adin Hill at 6:47 of the first period for a 1-0 lead, the Blues’ first game in which they scored first.
Buchnevich’s power-play goal at 7:29 of the second period cut the deficit to 3-2 on another strong shooting effort, cutting from the right to left after taking Kyrou’s seam pass and whipping a shot short side past Hill.
He would keep the Blues alive in the third period by springing Robert Thomas on a breakaway for a goal at 15:04 of the third period despite falling down but quickly gaining his footing.
It was a solid offensive effort by one of the Blues’ top forwards, but his efforts fell just short.
