ST. LOUIS — The Blues have made it to the finish line, all 56 games. And that certainly didn’t seem likely back in January, February and even March, when all kinds of games were postponed for all sorts of reasons – mainly COVID-19 related.
But the regular season is history following Thursday’s 7-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild at Enterprise Center.
Now the real race begins. The Blues will have a running start into the postseason, having finished with a flourish. So much for that grueling closing stretch of 13 games in 22 days to finish the regular season, with 10 of the 13 coming against playoff teams.
The Blues went 8-2-3 over those final 13 contests, with a pivotal 5-3 comeback win April 24 against the Avalanche that was fueled by a Ryan O’Reilly hat trick.
As he has done since the Blues clinched a playoff berth last Friday in Vegas, coach Craig Berube tinkered with his lineup Thursday — in part because of injuries and in part to rest some veterans.
Tyler Bozak returned to action after getting rested Wednesday. Sammy Blais was back after missing five games with an upper-body injury. But Jaden Schwartz and Colton Parayko were out, with Schwartz resting and Parayko “banged up” and “day-to-day” according to Berube.
Steven “The Great” Santini returned to the lineup in place of Parayko.
Minnesota, its third-place playoff slot sealed Wednesday night, also rested several regulars Thursday: Jonas Brodin, Kevin Fiala, Kirill Kaprizov, Jared Spurgeon and Mats Zuccarello.
Which meant this one had the feel of that late-in-the-preseason game where you play many of the regulars.
And in the case of the Blues, they appeared to approach this game with preseason-like intensity at the start of the game. In other words, not very much.
Minnesota scored twice in the first four minutes, six seconds on goals by Nico Sturm and Ryan Suter. The first came on a net-front rebound by Sturm; the second on a blueline shot through traffic by Suter.
The Blues didn’t have much in the way of zone time, especially early in the period, getting outworked for the most part all over the ice by what looked like a more motivated Minnesota team.
With the period winding down, Marcus Foligno batted in a rebound for his 11th goal of the season and it was 3-0 Wild. At that point the only question was how bad the Blues would lose.
But no. For the fourth time this season, the Blues scored four goals in a single period. And a team that slumbered through the first period, seemingly in shut-down mode until the postseason, took a 4-3 lead after two.
Beleaguered Zach Sanford got it started with his 10th goal of the season, but his first since April 9 to get the Blues on the board at the 5:16 mark of the second period. Go back a month further and it was just his second goal since March 12.
So it was one goal over 24 games — and minus 13 over that stretch — until Sanford’s wrist shot beat Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen from the left circle.
A couple of minutes later, former Blue Ian Cole was sent off for hooking Klim Kostin. Brayden Schenn made them pay with his 15th goal of the season — scored net front — after a slick set-up pass from below the goal line by Ryan O’Reilly
Next up was David Perron with his 18th goal of the season, a high shot from the right circle to make it a tie game — 3-3 — with 8:27 left in the second. It gave Perron 56 points on 18 goals and 38 assists in 56 games this season.
Since this was the Blues’ 56th and last game of the regular season, it meant that Perron would be the Blues’ first point-per-game scorer over a season since Pavol Demitra during the 2002-03 campaign. Demitra had 93 points in 78 games that season.
For good measure, Perron made it 57 points in 56 games with a primary assist on Schenn’s second goal of the night — a roof shot off a rebound to give the Blues a 4-3 lead with 5:57 left in the second.
All told, it was a barrage of four goals in 8:47.
The Blues continued their barrage in the third period. First, it was Perron with his second goal of the night, and the Blues’ third power play of the evening, to make it 5-3 with 5:50 gone in the third.
Then came a little glimpse of Klim Kostin. In his second game with the Blues this season, Kostin showed some speed skating his big frame down left wing then sent a pinpoint pass to a trailing Jordan Kyrou. Kyrou buried it. And then Kyrou scored again later in the period on a mini-breakaway.
It was 7-3 Blues with the third period winding down and hard to believe the Blues once trailed 3-0.
Kahkonen, you may recall, allowed nine goals here on April 9 in a 9-1 Blues victory. After Thursday’s carnage, that made it 16 goals allowed in two games. He may never want to visit St. Louis again — not even to see the Arch.
So the Blues finish the regular season 26-21-9, and Thursday’s loss dropped them below .500 at home, at 11-12-5. That gave them a losing home record for only the seventh time in franchise history — and the first time since the 2006-07 squad finished 18-19-4 at what was then known as Scottrade Center.
