DENVER – On Saturday, the Blues defeated the hottest and at the time the best team in the NHL – the Vegas Golden Knights.
On Monday, they bested the defending Stanley Cup champions – that’s right, Stan Kroenke’s hockey team - by a score of 3-2.
So yeah, it’s been a pretty good 48 hours for the Blues. They have now won three in a row, and with each victory that ugly eight-game losing streak is more firmly in the rear-view mirror.
With most of the players’ mothers on hand for the team’s first-ever Moms’ trip, the Blues improved to 6-8-0 for the season although they still remain in last place in the Central Division. Colorado, which had its four-game winning streak snapped, fell to 8-5-1.
Timing is everything in hockey, and the Blues caught the Avalanche missing seven injured players, including mainstays Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichuskin, Sam Girard, Darren Helm and Bowen Byram.
After the morning skate, coach Craig Berube said he thought the presence of about 20 moms might bring some good luck.
“We’re gonna get it done,” Berube said. “We’re gonna get it done tonight. I have a good feeling.”
Turns out he was right.
The Blues did it by killing off 1:43 of a Colorado 5-on-3 power play - with 1:44 left in the game.
That Thomas line
The Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Vladimir Tarasenko line has yet to rekindle the magic it displayed for much of last season. That’s partly a result of Buchnevich missing five games with a lower-body injury.
But with the Blues trailing 1-0 in the second period (after a Mikko Rantanen goal), the Thomas line came alive. Specifically, Buchnevich spring Thomas on a breakaway with a quick and accurate stretch pass, and Thomas did the rest skating in to beat Colorado goalie Alexandar Georgiev with a wrist shot just 2:20 after Rantanen’s 11th goal of the season.
Tarasenko had the secondary assist on the goal, which was Thomas’ third of the season. Thomas’ mother Deborah was the designated “reporter” for the mothers after the Blues’ morning skate. At that time, she asked Berube who was his favorite Blues player.
After that goal, he might have said Thomas.
It stayed tied at 1-1 until Brandon Saad scored a goal for the third game in a row. The Saad-Ryan O’Reilly-Josh Leivo line has been perking lately – ever since the Blues called up Leivo and Berube inserted him on the O’Reilly line against San Jose.
The trio works well low, plays the possession game and tries to go to the net. O’Reilly worked the puck over to Saad behind the net, who quickly circled in front and whipped a shot past Georgiev that may have deflected in off the skate of a Colorado player.
In any event, the Blues had a 2-1 lead with 1:01 left in the second period.
Up by two, but not for long
With a mere 1.4 seconds remaining in the second, Rantanen was whistled for interference against Ivan Barbashev so the Blues entered the third period with 1:58.6 worth of power play. They needed only 13 seconds.
Thomas sprung Jordan Kyrou down right wing and Kyrou used his speed to reach the net front in the blink of an eye, lifting a quick wrister over Georgiev for his team-leading fifth goal of the year and a 3-1 Blues lead.
The Blues had been just 2-for-19 on the power play over six-plus games prior to that score.
But Colorado returned the favor when Brayden Schenn went off for his second tripping penalty of the game. With traffic in front of Jordan Binnington, Artturi Lehkonen went post and in on the far side to make it a 3-2 game with 16:58 left.
Less than ideal
The Avalanche entered the game tops in the league with a scorching 39.0 percent efficiency rate on the power play. Meanwhile, the Blues were floundering at 29th in the league at 70.8 percent on the penalty kill. That’s not good math if you’re a Blues fan.
The best formula for keeping the lid on the potent Colorado power play?
“Don’t take penalties,” coach Craig Berube said after the morning skate.
Actually, the Blues had followed that formula in their wins over Vegas and San Jose. They didn’t have a penalty in either game – the first time that’s happened in back-to-back games in franchise history.
Well, only 2:46 had expired in the first period Monday before Torey Krug went off for hooking.
At the 14:40 mark of the period, the Blues went to the box again when Schenn was whistled for tripping.
But the Blues killed off both penalties – the second of the two got a little hairy - to keep the game scoreless after one period.
Kyrou and defense
Two words you don’t hear all that often with the Blues are “Kyrou” and “defense.” But Kyrou saved a goal with less than nine minutes to play in the opening period. Colorado’s Evan Rodrigues had Binnington beat on a wrap-around attempt, but Kyrou was there on the right side of the net to block the shot with his leg with 8:55 left.
