ST. LOUIS — Pavel Buchnevich scored in the sixth round of a shootout, Thomas Greiss made 47 saves and the St. Louis Blues survived blowing a three-goal lead to beat the Washington Capitals 5-4 on Thursday night.
Ryan O'Reilly, Brayden Schenn, Torey Krug and Buchnevich scored in regulation to help give Greiss his first victory with the Blues.
"We have to do a better job in front of him," Schenn said about Greiss. "We know that. We talked about it. We still didn't come out and do it. He's making 40 to 50 saves a night when he's in the net."
Buchnevich's first career shootout goal in five attempts gave St. Louis its fifth straight victory — after losing a franchise-record eight consecutive games in regulation.
"He's not a guy that normally likes to take them," Blues coach Craig Berube said about using Buchnevich in the shootout. "But I told him that we need him to do it. We practiced it a few times and he's good."
John Carlson scored twice for Washington, Alex Ovechkin had a goal and two assists and Conor Sheary also scored. The Capitals lost for the eighth time in 10 games.
"The last few, our starts have not been good enough," Sheary said. "Just giving up early goals and our penalty kill needs to be a little better early on in games. If we're not chasing games so much, maybe we'll be able to play a full 60 and get to our game more often."
Charlie Lindgren stopped 20 shots to lose his first appearance against St. Louis after going 5-0-0 in five games for the Blues last season.
"We didn't press enough offensively," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "I don't think we gave up that much defensively, but we've got to push more from the start. I don't think we brought enough pucks to the net, didn't bring enough people to th enet. I thought after the first we got going."
Jon Dowd appeared to give Washington its first lead with 2:23 remaining in regulation when he swatted a puck past Greiss. However, video review revealed Dowd batted the puck with a high stick.
"We had a high stick on it and a goalie interference on it," Berube said. "I felt pretty confident. I guess you never know."
Carlson scored his second goal of the game and fifth of the season with 4:15 remaining in regulation on a power play with Lindgren pulled, and Sheary tied it at 4 with his seventh goal of the season 1:12 later.
PULLING NO PUNCHES
Kazahkstani professional boxer Gennady Golovkin was shown in the crowd at Enterprise Center. Golvin has held the International Boxing Federation middleweight title since 2019 and added the WBA title in April.
BLACK AND BLUE
Blues D Colton Parayko missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury that coach Craig Berube said was not related to back injuries that have hindered him in previous seasons.
CAPITAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Ovechkin reached 1,827 points to pass Bryan Trottier for 18th in NHL history. Carlson skated in his 900th career NHL game.
UP NEXT:
Capitals: Host Colorado on Saturday night.
Blues: Host Anaheim on Saturday night.
