LAS VEGAS — For the St. Louis Blues, playing the high-powered Vegas Golden Knights has been like sitting on a pot of boiling water.
(Covered with a lid, of course.) You’re just trying to keep the thing from boiling over. More often than not, it’s boiled over. Over the course of this season, the Knights have pummeled the Blues 6-1 and 5-1 (twice).
Additionally, Vegas rallied from a 4-3 deficit in St. Louis for a 5-4 overtime win in mid-March. And rallied from a 4-2 deficit with two third-period goals in late January to pull out an overtime point at T-Mobile Arena.
Even in a 3-1 victory the last time the teams met, April 7, Jordan Binnington had to make a career-high 50 saves to hold off the hard-charging Golden Knights.
“They stay on it, they’re a competitive team and they hound hard,” coach Craig Berube said after the morning skate. “They keep coming at you.”
Well, the pot bubbled over again. The Blues’ efforts for the 44th playoff berth in franchise history were successful despite a 4-3 overtime loss to Vegas on Friday at T-Mobile. On Marc-Andre Fleury figurine night, no less.
Jonathan Marchessault’s goal with just 17.7 seconds left was the game-winner. But Colorado defeated the Los Angeles Kings 3-2, so the Blues are in the playoffs. The Kings have been eliminated from contention.
The Blues were without Sammy Blais, Vince Dunn, Torey Krug and Vladimir Tarasenko — all of whom remained on the injury list
Now 24-19-9, for 57 points, the Blues' points streak is a season high eight games (5-0-3).
“We kinda want to send a message that we’re not gonna roll over easy, and we’re gonna be a tough team to beat coming down to the stretch here,” Mackenzie MacEachern, in the lineup for the second game in a row due to the latest round of injuries, said before the game.
There’s always Saturday.
Vegas (38-13-2) stayed atop the West Division, but still has Colorado and Minnesota breathing down its neck.
All things considered, the Blues had to feel pretty good coming out of the first period tied 1-1. They killed off two Vegas power plays, in fact, they scored a shorthanded goal to tie it 1-all on the second penalty with just 1:52 to play in the first.
It was a fast-paced game over the first half of the period, which pretty much favors the Vegas style of play. The Golden Knights are a good rush team. But it wasn’t their transition game, it was an old-fashioned net-front goal that gave Vegas a 1-0 lead.
Reilly Smith got behind Jake Walman and was camped at the crease when he scored his 11th goal of the season with 6:37 left in the first period for the game’s first goal.
Then, just 13 seconds into a MacEachern penalty for high-sticking, O’Reilly scored his 24th goal of the season to tie it. Tyler Bozak did the heavy lifting, winning a faceoff, skating out of the Blues’ defensive zone, and then eluding Vegas defender Shea Theodore after dumping the puck in.
That hustle allowed Bozak to get to the puck first behind the Vegas net and then send it to a trailing Ryan O’Reilly in the left circle. O’Reilly settled the puck then beat Robin Lehner to tie the game.
It was the Blues’ fifth shorthanded goal of the season, with two of them scored by Bozak and now two scored by O’Reilly.
The Blues rode that momentum into the second period, taking a 3-1 lead on goals by David Perron and Jaden Schwartz. After a line change, Zach Sanford sent a cross-ice pass to Perron. The pass was tipped by Vegas’ Alex Tuch but not enough to keep it off Perron’s stick. His 16th goal of the season with 5:26 left in the second made it a 2-1 game.
Less than two minutes later, Schwartz made it 3-1 on a quick turn-and-shoot that beat Lehner from an incredibly tight angle. Like Perron’s goal, it came on a quick shot. No hesitation.
So Schwartz’s seventh goal of the year made it 3-1 Blues with just 3:42 left in the second. They couldn’t take that two-goal lead into the third period, however. The Knights lead the NHL in goals scored by defensemen, and Alec Martinez added to that total with a blast from just inside the blue line with just 10 seconds left in the second.
Binnington was screened on the play and it didn’t look like he saw the puck.
It’s not like the momentum from that late Vegas goal carried over into the third period because they five minutes or so were evenly played with the Blues resolute on the forecheck and moving in for a block when it appeared Vegas had an open look.
But the Golden Knights are nothing if not relentless, and they know how to close out a game with a league-best plus-22 goal differential in the third period. So when Binnington left a rebound on a slap shot by Zach Whitecloud. Nicolas Roy’s sixth goal of the year made it a 3-3 game with 13:08 left in the third.
But the Blues didn’t buckle or panic. They stayed with their game and had some excellent chances as the period wound down including a near-miss on a wrap-around by Kyle Clifford.
