ST. LOUIS — The Blues showed, once again, that they can hang with the Colorado Avalanche, which has the best record in the NHL. They just need to find a full 60 minutes.
The second period may be the middle of the game, but it’s going to be the end of the Blues. The Blues have struggled in the period much of the season — they’ve been outscored 51-36 during the second this season — and on Wednesday night, Colorado scored three times to blow open a tight game and come away with a 4-3 win at Enterprise Center.
The teams were even after one and the Blues scored two goals and created ample chances for at least one more in the third, but didn't and ultimately couldn’t overcome their second-period shortcomings as they saw their three-game win streak come to an end. The Blues remain one point up on Arizona in the chase for fourth place in the West Division, and the Blues have two games in hand. The Blues now have two days off before a duel in the desert on Saturday with the Coyotes that looms very large for both teams.
Colorado has a league-high 30 wins in 43 games, so the Blues losing to them is not exactly a stunner, but they now have lost four in a row to the Avalanche since beating them on opening night in January. With three games against the Avalanche next week, at some point it would serve the Blues well to start winning some of these games, especially since if they do get in to the playoffs, their most likely opponent is these Avalanche.
The Blues got two goals from Mike Hoffman, his second straight two-goal game, and another from Vince Dunn. Hoffman's non-trade on Monday is shaping up as a major move for the other offensively starved Blues.
There was some potential going into the game. The Blues had been off since Saturday, when they pulled out a 3-2 overtime win against Minnesota thanks to a goal by Hoffman in the last minute of regulation and then a goal by Ryan O’Reilly with two seconds to play in overtime. Their scheduled game on Monday in St. Paul, Minn., was postponed because of a curfew in the area after unrest because of another police shooting.
The Blues got good news earlier in the day when, in a game moved to the afternoon because of the curfew, Minnesota beat Arizona, 5-2, which, for a few hours, put the Blues one point up on Arizona but having played three less games.
Adding another layer to the game, Colorado goalie Philipp Grubauer went on the league’s COVID-19 list on Wednesday, and the team canceled its morning skate because of a positive test within the organization (which isn’t necessarily Grubauer). Not facing Grubauer was fine with the Blues; he came into the day with a 2.00 goals-against average, tied for the best in the league among goalies who have played more than 15 games, and a .920 save percentage. Grubauer also came into the game with a league-high 25 wins, one of which came against the Blues on April 3 when the Avalanche won 2-1.
With Grubauer out, the Blues instead faced Devan Dubnyk, who the Avalanche picked up at the trade deadline to back up Grubauer. The Blues faced Dubnyk five times when he was with San Jose and the results favored the Blues: they won three of the five games, and Dubnyk had a 4.43 goals-against average and a .845 save percentage.
With four of their next five games against Colorado, it was a priority for Blues coach Craig Berube for his team to come out strongly against the Avalanche. First periods have been the best for the Blues lately, and it was also essential for them to set the tone for the series. With four of their final 15 games with the league’s best team, at least in terms of points, the Blues need to get something out of these games.
And they almost did very quickly, with Tyler Bozak hitting the post less than two minutes into the game on a semi-breakaway. Instead, it was the Avalanche who scored first, after a failed Blues clearance that led to a quick shot by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare that beat goalie Jordan Binnington with 9:32 to go in the first.
The Blues finally got even with 4:40 to go. The Blues were on a power play after Ryan Graves was called for holding Vladimir Tarasenko. With 20 seconds to go in the power play, Bozak slapped a pass to Vince Dunn in the slot, who redirected it past Dubnyk to tie the game. It was an all-trade-rumor goal, with Mike Hoffman, who like Dunn and Bozak had been a potential trade candidate at Monday’s trade deadline, getting the other assist. It was the sixth goal of the season for Dunn, tying him with Justin Faulk for the most by a Blues defenseman.
If first periods have been good, second periods haven’t, and that was soon borne out. Colorado took the opening faceoff to the period and spent two minutes in the Blues zone. The Blues got the puck out, but when it came back in a shot by Conor Timmins was deflected by Liam O’Brien, hit the post and landed behind Binnington in the crease. Before he could find it, J.T. Compher poked it in to put Colorado ahead 2:52 into the second.
Colorado got a power play on a hooking call on Jake Walman and 14 seconds in, a one-timer by Mikko Rantanen with 14:43 to play in the second and then Brandon Saad scored to make it 4-1 with 8:43 to go.
Hoffman got his goal on a shot from behind the net that he banked in off Dubnyk with 14:05 to go in the third and it lit a fire under the Blues, who then buzzed the net for a few minutes but couldn’t score. Hoffman’s second goal, on a power play with 3:16 to go with help from a screen from Brayden Schenn.
