ST. LOUIS — The Blues picked up where they left off before the Christmas break, again taking one of the best teams in the league on Tuesday night at Enterprise Center. The Blues got a point before Christmas, losing to Vegas in a shootout, and they reopened their season with an overtime loss, 5-4, to Toronto.
William Nylander scored the game-winner for Toronto with 56.7 seconds to go in the extra period, taking the puck away from Vladimir Tarasenko as he retreated to center ice to reset the offense and then blasting past him for a breakaway goal.
It was the second breakaway for Toronto in overtime. The first ended in a penalty shot for Toronto after Jordan Kyrou wrestled down TJ Brodie on a breakaway, but Binnington made the save to extend the overtime.
The Blues have points in seven of their past eight games, though three of the games the Blues lost in overtime or a shootout. The Blues have been tied after regulation in five of their past eight games.
The Blues made a rare third period comeback to get the point. They were 2-12-1 when trailing after two periods coming into the game, but Jordan Kyrou tied the game 5:13 into the third period, passing the puck out to Colton Paryko and then firing it in from the right dot to make it 4-4.
After that, the Blues had to weather a crush of scoring chances from the Maple Leafs with some nice saves from Jordan Binnington and eked out a point.
Kyrou’s back
When the Blues started their morning skate on Tuesday, Kyrou looked to be along for the ride. The forward had missed the last two games before the Christmas break with an upper body injury suffered in the closing seconds of the Vancouver game. He sat out the line rushes, usually a tipoff a player won’t be in that night, but when the team started power-play work later on, Kyrou started taking part.
“He felt good and I thought it’d be a good idea to get him out there on the power play so he could get his reps,” Blues coach Craig Berube said.
By the end of the morning skate, Kyrou said he felt good enough to play that night and he made his return to action.
“I needed to see how it felt and I feel great,” Kyrou said. “I’m ready to go.”
Kyrou had just completed his first NHL hat trick and had six goals in three games when Vancouver’s Kyle Burroughs hit him into the boards in the closing seconds of the game. Berube called it a clean hit, and while that may be the case, Kyrou called it “an unnecessary hit.”
“I guess I have to be more aware of that stuff,” he said.
Thomas shaken up
With the Blues down 2-1 early in the second period, center Robert Thomas was checked into the boards by Toronto’s Justin Holl, which got Holl a boarding penalty and got an instant response from Thomas’ linemate Jordan Kyrou. Thomas was on the ice for a while before heading to the bench accompanied by trainer Ray Barile. Thomas didn’t immediately get on the bench, staying on the ice instead for the power play, until he was told to get off by referee Brian Pochmara. Thomas didn’t stay on the bench long, and just a few seconds into the power play, he was back on the ice.
And not long after that, Toronto scored a shorthanded goal, by Alexander Kerfoot on what started as a three-on-one break for Toronto and wasn’t shut down well by the Blues after they stopped the initial rush.
The Blues got back within a goal on a shot by Ryan O’Reilly, who Toronto kept giving room and room to shoot until he finally did, putting it just inside the right post for this 10th goal of the season, making him the fourth Blue to hit double figures. It was O’Reilly’s first goal in nine games, his first point in seven.
The Blues tied the game at 3-3 on a power-goal by Justin Faulk, who blasted in a 91.9 mph one-timer off a pass from Pavel Buchnevich, It was the sixth goal of the season for Faulk, giving him the team lead from defensemen, with one more than Torey Krug, who started a run on long-term injured reserve on Tuesday.
The tie didn’t last long. With 4:44 to go in the second, Toronto went back on top when Calle Jarnkrok skated on to a loose puck just beyond the goal line to the left of the net and reached back to put a shot on goal, that hit the near post and took its sweet time finally going across the goal line.
Blues control first but trail
The Blues held Toronto to just five shots on goal in the first period, including a gap of 9 minutes, 7 seconds between shots through the middle of the period. But the Maple Leafs scored on their first shot on goal of the period and their last and led 2-1 after 20 minutes.
Toronto scored first, 3:08 into the game. Mark Giordano took a shot that was tipped by Auston Matthews and went off the post. The rebound came to defenseman Justin Holl who had an open side of the net to put in his second goal of the season.
From there, it all belonged to the Blues, who created scoring chances and had control of the puck. It finally produced a goal, with 12:26 to go in the first, when Alexey Torophchenko couldn’t do anything with the puck in front of the net, getting it knocked off his stick by Alexander Kerfoot, but it came off to Logan Brown, who passed out to Calle Rosen at the top of the left circle and he put it past goalie Ilya Samsonov. It was something not seen often this season: the third goal for Rosen and the second assist for both Brown and Toropchenko.
The Blues had held Toronto to just four shots on goal in the first 19 minutes of the period, but they couldn’t close it out. A pass from Mitchell Marner found John Taveras and his shot went over Jordan Binnington’s left pad and in on a shot that looked like it should have been stopped.
