DALLAS (AP) — Pat Maroon flicked a puck over Dallas Stars goalie Ben Bishop with 1:38 left in a wild third period, and the St. Louis Blues won 4-3 on Monday night to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference semifinal series.
Maroon’s second goal of the playoffs came after he gathered the puck to the left of Bishop and scored. That ended a span of just under 5½ minutes when both teams scored two goals.
Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo scored his first goal of the playoffs, after also going without a goal in his last 17 games in the regular season, with 5:36 left for a 3-2 lead. His one-timer coming right after the end of a Blues power play during which Andrew Cogliano scored a short-handed goal to tie the game 1:18 earlier.
But Dallas quickly got even again at 3-3 on Tyler Seguin’s goal at 15:52 that was his first point in this series.
The Stars were on the power play for the final 44 seconds of the game after a delay of game penalty against Colton Parayko, a penalty that was called after a lengthy discussion by the four on-ice officials. Dallas had a two-skater advantage with Bishop out of net and on the bench, but had three shots blocked and missed another before time ran out.
Game 4 is Wednesday night in Dallas.
Jaden Schwartz and Tyler Bozak each had a goal and an assist for the Blues, who are still undefeated on the road this postseason after winning all three games at Winnipeg in the first-round series they won in six games. All four of the road wins have been by one goal.
Jay Bouwmeester assisted on both St. Louis goals in the third period.
Alexander Radulov scored on a power play in the first period for the Stars, his team-high fifth goal of the playoffs.
Blues rookie goalie Jordan Binnington had 28 saves.
Bishop, who grew up in St. Louis, was drafted by the Blues and made his NHL debut for them in 2008, stopped 30 shots.
St. Louis went ahead 2-1 midway through the second period when Vince Dunn passed to Robert Thomas, whose shot from the middle of the right circle got through Bishop’s legs and behind him. Bozak was there, along with Stars forward Roope Hintz, and was able to knock the puck in for his second goal of the playoffs.
Even with the wild finish, Binnington had another solid performance in net, including a stop of Radulov’s backhand on a breakaway just seconds after the Blues had taken the 2-1 lead in the second. The rookie also had a lead-protecting shot early in the game when he smothered a shot into his gut by Stars captain Jamie Benn, who had already had a shot slip into the outside of the net.
The Blues led 1-0 only 87 seconds into the game when Ryan O’Reilly made a pass from behind the net to Parayko, whose shot from the blue line was hit so hard that Schwartz’s stick was reverberating when he deflected the puck past Bishop for the goal.
Dallas got even on a power-play goal by Radulov, who was sliding backward in front of the net and connected on a quick wrister on a pass from Jason Spezza.
NOTES: On the short-handed goal for the Stars, Brayden Schenn pushed a puck to the other end. Mattias Janmark chased down the puck for the Stars and pushed it toward the net. Cogliano scored after knocking in his own rebound. … Before their four-game road winning streak so far in the playoffs, the Blues were 12-4-4 in their last 20 regular-season games away from home.
UP NEXT
Game 4 is Wednesday night in Dallas, before the series shifts back to St. Louis.
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports