ST. LOUIS — Law of averages. It had to happen sometime. And Saturday was that day. On a rare 5-on-3 power-play goal, with Mike Hoffman scoring on a third-period blast from the right circle, the Blues finally beat the Colorado Avalanche in the game of hockey.
Hoffman’s goal made it 4-3 and then captain Ryan O’Reilly scored an empty-netter — giving him a hat trick for the day in a 5-3 victory at Enterprise Center.
The Blues had lost their last five against the Avalanche, with their lone previous win against Stan Kroenke’s club coming on opening day — Jan. 13.
For at least a few hours, with Arizona scheduled to play Saturday night, the Blues are in fourth place and the final playoff spot at 20-19-6. Colorado, losing for only the second time in regulation since March 8, is 31-10-4.
Desperate for anything to get his team going, Blues coach Craig Berube didn’t just mix up his lines. It looked like he pulled them out of a hat.
For example, Brayden Schenn was with O’Reilly and Jordan Kyrou. The first time that line has been used, at least to open a game, this season.
Zach Sanford was with Sammy Blais and Mike Hoffman. Or so it seemed in warmups. But when the teams came out for the start of the game, Sanford was in street clothes — a healthy scratch. As a result, Berube went with only 11 forwards and an extra defenseman (seven total).
Things couldn’t have started worse for the Blues, could they?
The answer, of course, is no.
Schenn took a hooking penalty just 31 seconds in, with Colorado’s seventh-ranked power play out on the ice before anyone had a chance to break a sweat.
Twenty-three seconds later, Schenn had to move over to make room for Robert Bortuzzo who was whistled for roughing Gabriel Landeskog. So it was a 5-on-3 advantage for the NHL’s highest-scoring team.
With that it mind, it was almost predictable that the Avalanche would get on the board, and they did on a Cale Makar shot from the slot that got past a screened Jordan Binnington. Just seven seconds after those penalties ended, Landeskog made it 2-0 with his 17th goal of the season.
So it was 2-0 Avs just 3 minutes, 1 second in the game. And the Blues, as expected, were toast. Right?
Well, not exactly.
On a couple of occasions this week, including his pregame Zoom session, Berube talked about how he wanted the team’s leaders to step up and drag the team of its mess.
O’Reilly got the message. He scored the game’s next two goals — his 18h and 19th of the season — with the goals coming less than three minutes apart.
The first goal was all about effort. Battling for the puck in the corner, O’Reilly stripped the puck from Nathan MacKinnon, basically passed to himself through the legs of Makar, and then sent a net front pass to Jordan Kyrou.
Before it got to Kyrou, the puck deflected in off Colorado defenseman Devon Toews and past goalie Devan Dubnyk and in. Dubnyk, by the way, was making his eight start of the season against the Blues: three as a member of the Avalanche and five with the San Jose Sharks.
O’Reilly's second goal came on a backhand to tie the game at 2-2.
With the period winding down, Ivan Barbashev gave the Blues a 3-2 lead with some extra-effort of his own. Barbashev who didn’t have a single shot attempt in either of the Blues’ prior two games, shot not once, not twice, but three times against Dubnyk.
The third shot was the charm — Barbashev’s fourth goal of the season.
St. Louis came out for the second period without Colton Parayko, who would miss the rest of the game with what the Blues said was an upper-body injury. It was not certain if it was related to Parayko’s previous back injury.
Fortunately for the Blues, then, that Berube decided to go with seven defensemen. They still finished short a defenseman when Vince Dunn left in the third period and did not return.
But the Blues’ second-period woes continued when a Mike Hoffman slashing penalty led to a power-play goal by MacKinnon, his 18th of the season, extending his current point streak to 13 games — the longest current streak in the NHL.
MacKinnon almost scored again later in the period, but rang a shot off the post. So the Blues made it out of the period without any further damage in what was a 3-3 game. But it continued the team’s second-period struggles.
MacKinnon’s goal dropped the Blues to minus-19 in goal differential in the second period this season. It also made it eight unanswered goals scored against St. Louis in the second period, dating back to the Blues’ 3-2 overtime win against Minnesota on April 10.
