ST. LOUIS — On Monday morning, Blues forward David Perron was reflecting on the play of teammate Ryan O’Reilly on Saturday, when the team captain pretty much took it upon himself to rally his team from a 2-0 deficit for a critical win for his struggling team.
His thought: O’Reilly’s play could serve as an inspiration for the rest of the Blues.
“I think we need more guys to play inspired hockey like that,” Perron said.
It sure looked that way on Monday night. With the frequent refrain that the Blues need their best players to start leading the way, it finally happened, as a handful of players who have struggled to score of late found their game and it paid off in a 4-1 win over Colorado that pushed the Blues back ahead of Arizona for fourth place in the West Division, pending Arizona’s game Monday night at San Jose.
The Blues got goals from Vladimir Tarasenko, who came into the evening with three in 21 games after coming back from shoulder surgery, from Brayden Schenn, who had gone 19 games without a goal since he last scored on March 8 at San Jose, David Perron, who had gone nine games without a goal and Robert Thomas, who had gone 10 games without a goal, which because of injuries, stretched back to Feb. 6.
All that was missing was throwback jerseys, to the happier days of February.
The win gave the Blues a two-game win streak, which may not seem like much, but considering those two wins are both over Colorado, considered one of the best teams in the league, it’s no small feat for a Blues team that has been staggering for the past couple of months. If Saturday’s win gave them a jolt of confidence, this one likely doubled it.
In a game that didn’t make a whole lot of sense, the Blues outscored Colorado 2-1 in the second period, usually where most Blues games meet an unhappy demise, and a makeshift defense that included Niko Mikkola and Steven Santini because of injuries to Colton Parayko and Vince Dunn, held Colorado to one goal, and a power-play goal at that, after two periods. At one point, the Blues had four goals on 17 shots on goal, a very efficient use of their efforts.
The Blues finished the season 3-5 against Colorado, winning the first, losing five in a row and then winning the last two, and now head to Minnesota for three games, back-to-backs on Wednesday and Thursday and then a single game on Saturday.
The Blues took a 4-1 lead into the third and held on, effectively killing an early Colorado power play that came right after a spectacular save by Jordan Binnington as Colorado’s Kiefer Sherwood looked to have an easy opportunity to put in a rebound.
From there, it looked rather easy, even if Colorado did keep consistent pressure on, the Blues defense broke up plays and blocked shots.
The Blues got off to a good start. After Jordan Kyrou drew a tripping penalty, it took the Blues just eight seconds to score on the power play. Mike Hoffman, promoted to the first power play unit, sent a cross-ice pass to Torey Krug, who fed the puck in front to Tarasenko, who on the second swipe put in the net. That’s exactly where coach Craig Berube has wanted Tarasenko to be, in front of the net, and it’s where he found a goal with 10:35 to go in the first. The Blues have a power-play goal in seven consecutive games, a season high and coming into the game had converted on seven of 19 opportunities.
About four minutes later, Schenn breathed a huge sigh of relief. On March 8, he held the team lead with 12 goals, and six weeks later, he was still on 12. Perron kept a puck in at the blueline, dumped it behind the goal to Ryan O’Reilly, who saw Schenn alone in the left circle where he ripped off a quick shot to make it 2-0 with 6:26 to go in the first.
The Blues killed off a power play that started in the first period and ended in the second and then went up 3-0 with 12:58 to go in the second. Justin Faulk blasted a shot from the blueline that Perron tipped in front of the net and sent it pas Jonas Johansson, who got the start in place of the omnipresent Devan Dubnyk.
Colorado cut the lead to 3-1 on a power-play goal by Nathan MacKinnon that ran his point streak to 14 games, matching the longest in the NHL this season. But it didn’t take long to get the lead back to three. Marco Scandella couldn’t get a shot off when he had the chance, but he kept the play alive. Perron fed Thomas, who got Gabriel Landeskog to go down, kept the puck another second, skated to find an open lane and scored just his second goal of the season.
