Dmitrij Jaskin played the hero in the third period for the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday.
With his team holding a precarious lead over the Detroit Red Wings, the 22-year-old forward powered his way through the neutral zone, then beat defenseman Mike Green to the net before scoring a beauty on a determined effort to give the Blues a two-goal cushion at a critical point in the game.
The Blues did give up a late goal to Henrik Zetterberg, making for a hectic finish, but held on for the 2-1 victory despite being short a defenseman for the entire game. Brian Elliott made 29 saves on 30 shots faced for St. Louis.
Blues will dress 5 defenseman tonight. Parayko is sick and they didn't take Gunnarsson off IR in time. Armstrong says it's his fault
— Tom Timmermann (@tomtimm) January 20, 2016
The Blues, who relied heavily on defensemen Kevin Shattenkirk (28:14 of ice time) and Alex Pietrangelo (28:28 of ice time) Wednesday, have now won three in a row and are tied in points (63) with the struggling Dallas Stars in the Central Division.
Meanwhile, the Red Wings missed out on a chance to close the three-point gap between them and the Atlantic Division-leading Florida Panthers.