St. Louis Blues vs Vegas Golden Knights Match Player Stats On Oct 20, 2021

Jordan Binnington made 42 saves as the St. Louis Blues completed a sweep of their season-opening, three-game road trip with a 3-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

Brandon Saad, Vladimir Tarasenko and Ivan Barbashev scored goals for St. Louis, which won games at Colorado and Arizona earlier on the trip.

William Karlsson scored for Vegas. Robin Lehner, pulled in his previous start after allowing four goals in two periods during a 6-2 loss at Los Angeles, bounced back to stop 35 of 37 shots.

St. Louis had the first seven shots of the game, including four on a power play after William Carrier picked up a hooking penalty, but Lehner was sharp early, making several grade-A saves.

The Golden Knights took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on Karlsson's first goal of the season. The score came at the end on a two-on-one break with Reilly Smith, who hit Karlsson on the right wing with a cross-ice pass. Binnington stopped Karlsson's one-timer, but Karlsson followed up and knocked in the rebound inside the far post.

St. Louis tied it 1-1 at 3:21 of the second period when Saad fired in a rebound from near the top of the right circle over Lehner's glove and inside the right post. It was the Saad's first goal with the Blues and the 185th of his career.

The Blues took a 2-1 lead at 9:49 of the third period on Tarasenko's first goal of the season. The tally came after a turnover in the neutral zone by Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, whose cross-ice pass was intercepted by Torey Krug. Krug passed ahead to Brayden Schenn to start a three-on-none break, and Tarasenko finished a tic-tac-toe with Jordan Kyrou by tapping Kyrou's pass past Lehner's glove side.

The Golden Knights pulled Lehner for an extra attacker with 2:15 remaining, and Barbashev sealed the win with an empty-netter off a Robert Thomas pass with 1:12 to go.

--Field Level Media