ST. LOUIS — After spending virtually all season playing the bottom half of the West Division, the Blues moved up to the high-rent district.
For only the fourth time this season, and the first time since late January, they faced one of the division’s elite, namely the division-leading Vegas Golden Knights.
Different foe, same game. The Blues played their eighth straight one-goal game Friday at Enterprise Center. And their fourth straight overtime affair.
In the first minute of overtime, defenseman Torey Krug went off for tripping Reilly Smith. With just 20 seconds left on the Vegas power play, Smith’s one-timer got by Jordan Binnington for a 5-4 Vegas win.
The Golden Knights improved to 17-6-1. The Blues, losing their third overtime game in a row, are 14-8-5.
The Blues looked sluggish at the outset, like a team that had been off for maybe a week instead of three days. Even so, it was a tight-checking start without many shots by either team.
That all changed over the final five minutes of the opening period, and not in the Blues’ favor. In the lead up to the game, both Craig Berube and Blues players talked about the need to throttle the Vegas transition game.
With good overall speed throughout the lineup, the Golden Knights love to counter and race back the other way. And that’s what happened on the first goal of the game. Vegas raced up the ice on a 4-on-2, and before the Blues could really catch up — must less set up — the puck was in the net.
The sequence ended when Chandler Stephenson sent the puck in front of the net for a tap-in by Mark Stone. Stone’s seventh goal with 5:12 left in the first made it a 1-0 game.
Just 41 seconds later it was 2-0 Vegas on Jonathan Marchessault’s eighth goal of the season. Vince Dunn rimmed the puck around the boards behind the Blues’ net but it eluded Marco Scandella — who was playing in his 600th NHL game — and headed over to Smith.
In his first game since signing a six-year, $36 million contract extension, Binnington couldn’t control a rebound on Smith’s backhand. The puck went right to Marchessault for another tap-in goal.
So it was 2-0 Golden Knights after one, a period in which the Golden Knights ended up controlling zone time and had 23 total shot attempts to just 12 for the Blues.
The early minutes of the second period began with Vegas controlling zone time, and Berube shaking up his lines. Ryan O’Reilly’s ninth goal of the season got St. Louis on the board at the 5:14 mark. After Oskar Sundqvist lost his stick, Zach Sanford showed good patience and puck control to maintain possession in the offensive zone while the Blues regrouped and set up.
It worked out well for St. Louis. Sanford passed to Justin Faulk who zipped a pass from the high slot to O’Reilly. It arrived at pretty high velocity, but O’Reilly was ready for it with a one-timer from the right circle that got by Marc-Andre Fleury.
Fleury began the day on the NHL’s COVID-19 list, obviously looking like he would miss the game. With Robin Lehner back in Nevada finishing off an injury rehab assignment, it looked like either Logan Thompson or Dylan Ferguson would make their first NHL start for the Golden Knights.
No such luck for the Blues. Fleury, who has been just shy of spectacular this season, was back in the lineup because of a false positive. Even so, Fleury has been far from overwhelming against the Blues in his career, with a 6-8-2 record, 2.78 goals-against average and .911 save percentage.
Just as O’Reilly’s goal put St. Louis in the game, Tomas Nosek restored Vegas’ two-goal lead when he scored backdoor in-close at the 10:12 mark.
There were times when Vegas looked like it was toying with the Blues. But just when it looked like the game was getting lopsided, along came the Blues to make it a one-goal game once again. Sammy Blais cut through a couple of would-be Vegas defenders for a net-front shot on goal. The puck got temporarily caught up in the skates of Golden Knights defender Dylan Coghlan and slid over to Vladimir Tarasenko, who poked in his first goal of the season — in his third game back at the 13:36 mark of the second.
Even though they were just a little more than 2,000 strong, the fans at Enterprise were loud and proud. It was Tarasenko’s first goal since Oct. 21 2019 against Colorado.
So the Blues entered the third period within striking distance, and that’s when Sanford struck. With Alec Martinez off from tripping Sanford, Mike Hoffman ripped a one-timer from his office — the right circle. Fleury fought off the puck but couldn’t control the rebound.
And there was Sanford on the doorstep for an easy tap-in with the loose puck from the back side. So it was a 3-3 game less than five minutes into the period and the Blues had a power-play goal in their sixth consecutive game. There was just one problem. The Blues had six men on the ice at the time and Vegas coach Pete DeBoer appeared to be complaining about it. But it went undetected and Sanford’s eighth goal of the season stood.
They weren’t done with the power play, and weren’t done scoring. Midway through the period, Coghlan went off for tripping Niko Mikkola behind the Vegas net. Thirty-seven seconds into the power play, Brayden Schenn came barreling down the slot, lost his balance, and as he was falling to the ice, sent a pinpoint pass to David Perron near the net front.
Perron wasted no time with the shot. His 11th goal of the season extended his personal points streak to eight games and gave the Blues a 4-3 lead with 9:20 to play in the third. The Blues enjoyed only 47 seconds with the lead. Alec Martinez’s goal tied it at 4-4, setting the stage for another tight finish.
