ST. LOUIS — Sometimes all you have to do is what’s expected of you.
In a season filled with games the Blues should have won but didn’t, the Blues took on the Arizona Coyotes, tied for having the worst record in the league and, for a change, looked like a team was 37 points up on the other in the standings.
The Blues had chances to score in the first period but couldn’t before opening it up in the second with three goals in 4 minutes, 16 seconds on their way to a 5-1 win over Arizona at Enterprise Center.
They got goals from a troika of Russians, Ivan Barbashev, Vladimir Tarasenko (two) and Pavel Buchnevich, along with Brayden Schenn, whose goal gave the Blues seven 20-goal scorers this season. Tarasenko’s tally was his 25th of the season, putting him one ahead of Buchnevich, who scored his 24th, with Barbashev staying close behind with 22. With the win, the Blues are six points up on fourth-place Nashville and three points back of second-place Minnesota in the Central Division.
After going 1-3-2 in mid-March, the Blues have turned things around with a 4-0-1 run. They face another team at the bottom of the table, Seattle, on Wednesday before an important matchup with Minnesota on Friday.
Some of the league’s worst teams have given the Blues some of their toughest nights. Since mid-February, the Blues have lost to Montreal (tied for 31st), New Jersey (29th), Philadelphia (28th) and Ottawa (27th). It’s one of the factors that has kept the Blues embroiled in a playoff battle in the Central, a problem that coach Craig Berube blamed on arrogance, a claim not contested by some of his players.
That was why Berube said he didn’t even mention their opponent to his players Monday morning.
“Just go play,” Berube said. “Worry about us. Focus on us and go play. Play the right way. Play hard. That's it. … I didn't tell him who we're playing or what we're playing. We're just worried about our team tonight and go play. Worry about what we need to do and go play. That's it.”
In the first period, the Blues hit the post three times, twice by Brandon Saad and once by Buchnevich. In the second, the Blues got their first goal from Barbashev. He checked Alex Galchenyuk into the boards and Galchenyuk’s helmet came off. Galchenyuk didn’t immediately go to the bench, so he was going to be called for a penalty, but it didn’t matter. Calle Rosen, playing in his fifth straight game, took a shot that was blocked by goalie Ivan Prosvelov, but the rebound came right to Barbashev, who knocked it in 2:17 into the period.
It didn’t take very long for the second to follow. Robert Thomas had the puck behind the net, quickly reversed direction and had Tarasenko open in front of the net with an open side of the net to shoot into, just 1:17 after Barbashev’s goal.
Schenn made it 3-0 with 13:27, passing to David Perron and getting it back for a quick shot helped along by a Ryan O’Reilly screen.
It was the sixth time that Schenn has scored 20 goals in a season and it gave the Blues’ seven 20-goal scorers for just the third time in franchise history. In addition to Tarasenko, Buchnevich, Barbashev and Schenn, Perron, Brandon Saad and Jordan Kyrou have 20 goals. That matches the 1984-85 team with seven players and leaves this version one behind the 1980-81 team, which had 10. With O’Reilly with 16 and Thomas with 15, these Blues could get to nine.
“I just think that everyone's involved, we don't rely on one guy,” Schenn said. “Guys are going to go through spurts, guys are going to get hot at different times of the year and that's what you need as a team. Ultimately that's what you need in the playoffs. You need scoring from everyone. You can't just rely on one guy and I think that's a little bit of everything. That's us kind of playing two power-play units, lots of guys getting a chance whether it's 3-on-3, 4-on-4 and different certain situations and guys just capitalizing. That's all it boils down to. We kind of knew coming into this year that we have a lot of guys that are capable of scoring goals and it's nice to see everyone getting rewarded.”
Buchnevich made it 4-0 on a short-handed goal. O’Reilly pressured Arizona’s Shayne Gostisbehere into a turnover in the neutral zone and had a 2-on-1 break with Buchnevich, who postage-stamped the pass for the goal.
Goalie Ville Husso, meanwhile, was keeping Arizona off the boards, including stopping a breakaway by Michael Carcone with 4.4 seconds to go in the second. Arizona finally got a goal 3:09 into the third when Nick Schmaltz put in a rebound of a shot that deflected to Husso off Justin Faulk’s stick.
Tarasenko got his second with 6:51 to go, once again one-timing a pass from Thomas for a goal.
