SAN JOSE, Calif. — As they whisked off to Las Vegas and the next stop on this 12-game road trip, please forgive the Blues for California dreaming.
There have been a lot of ups and downs already this season, but when the Blues have played in the Golden State, things have been, well, golden. Saturday’s 5-2 victory over San Jose pushed the Blues' record to 8-1-2 in the state of California.
That ties an NHL record set previously by Dallas in the 2006-07 season. But it took the Stars 12 games to reach eight victories; the Blues did it in just 11.
The Blues are finished for the season playing the Ducks in Anaheim, although they still face them four times in St. Louis. They’re finished for the season period playing San Jose, finishing with a 5-1-2 mark against the Sharks.
They still have one more game to play in California, a makeup in Los Angeles of a game at the start of this trip that was postponed when the Kings got stuck in a Denver blizzard.
It was a good finish to a tough day that saw Oskar Sundqvist ruled out for the season with a knee injury that occurred Friday. Additionally, Zach Sanford showed up on the NHL’s COVID-19 list Saturday, meaning he couldn’t play.
If that wasn’t enough, Tyler Bozak was a last-minute scratch — he took part in pregame warmup. The Blues said it was an upper-body injury.
But the Blues persevered, pushing their record to 16-10-5 and just two points behind third-place Minnesota in the West Division. San Jose fell to 11-14-4.
As usual, things didn’t start well for Ville Husso in goal. For the seventh time this season, Husso allowed a goal on either the first, second, or third shot on goal by the opposition. This time it came on the third, a quick wrist shot by Dylan Gambrell just 2 minutes, 23 seconds into the contest.
It was his second goal of the season and just the seventh of his career for the 24-year-old forward.
It didn’t take long for the Blues to respond. Say what you will about Vince Dunn, but he’s never shy about shooting. And frequently, good things happen when you send pucks towards the net. Such was the case Saturday.
Dunn shot from near the blueline, and the puck deflected off the leg of San Jose defenseman Erik Karlsson and in. It was Dunn’s fourth goal of the season and the first for a Blues defenseman in five games. So just 69 seconds after the San Jose score, the Blues had tied it at 1-all.
Jordan Kyrou has been quiet lately, with just one goal in his last 12 games and none in his past eight entering Saturday. But he made some noise a little more than three minutes after the Dunn goal. Kyrou camped out in front of the net, and quickly flicked in a one-timer on a setup from Ryan O’Reilly from behind the San Jose goal.
It was the ninth of the season for Kyrou, who also had an assist on the Dunn goal.
It looked like it was 3-1 Blues with just under eight minutes left in the opening period, when Mike Hoffman whistled a shot from his “office” — the right faceoff circle — past Devan Dubnyk. But San Jose challenged the goal on an offside, and sure enough a review showed the Blues were offside. The goal was negated, and the score stood at 2-1 St. Louis.
Dubnyk played well the last time he faced St. Louis, a 3-2 overtime win for the Sharks here on March 8. But for the season, he entered with a 4.52 goals-against average and a .852 save percentage in four starts. The Blues were obviously aware of this, and looked hungry in the opening period.
Even though the shots were 11-5, the Blues had the better changes and the edge in the play
That momentum carried over into the second period. The Blues came out flying in the opening five minutes, buzzing around Dubnyk and getting lots of zone time. Their work rate was noticeable, digging for pucks, keeping the Sharks from getting much going.
But then the momentum slowly started changing San Jose’s way, capped by a Tomas Hertl goal, a roof shot past Husso at the 8:10 mark of the second to tie the game 2-2. It was a strange-looking play. Vladimir Tarasenko was with Hertl in the neutral zone, and then for some reason left him to go cover someone who was already being covered.
That left Hertl all alone. He took a pass from Timo Meier and skated in all alone on Husso for his eighth goal of the season.
The ice opened up as the second period progressed, and there was a lot of back-and-forth and decent chances for both sides.
The Blues got a couple of power plays, one after a delay of game penalty on Dubnyk; another when Kevin Labanc tripped O’Reilly. But they got next to nothing accomplished on either, managing only one shot on goal total.
Remember when the Blues’ power play scored in six consecutive games, converting on nine of 18 power play opportunities? Well, those days are gone for now. The Blues took an 0-for-7 drought over the past three games into the contest.
So with the first seven games in this series all one-goal affairs, the stage was set for another tight finish entering the third period.
The Blues got another power-play opportunity early in the third period when San Jose was whistled for a rare penalty — a faceoff violation. Just 12 seconds into the power play, O’Reilly beat Dubynk with a high shot from the top of the circle. Kyrou provided a net front screen. It was his 10th goal of the season.
Kryou added insurance with his second goal of the night, a net-front score with 4:09 left. And then Perron added insurance to the insurance with an empty-net goal.
