TORONTO — Go figure.
Two days after losing to the NHL’s worst team in overtime, the Blues beat one of its best. And they did it with one hand tied behind their back.
Or one 18-goal scorer. With Vladimir Tarasenko out of the lineup because of an unspecified injury, the Blues improved to 2-0-1 on this trip with a 6-3 victory over Toronto.
Playing in the hockey mecca of North America, if not the world, the Blues continued their amazing run at Scotiabank Arena. Since 1998, the Blues are 14-1-1 here. Mecca, smecca. This season, the Maple Leafs had won seven in a row at home, with their last loss here coming before Christmas.
“Coming to Toronto, I think everybody’s always energized and excited to play,” Blues coach Craig Berube said after the morning skate. “We have a number of people on our team that are from the Toronto area. So I think that there’s always good energy.”
Jordan Binnington, Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas and Jake Walman are all from the Toronto area, and for Thomas and Walman, Saturday marked their first game here. Remember, the Blues didn’t play here last season — playing the same seven opponents throughout the regular season.
In fact, the Blues’ last game in Toronto came way back on Oct. 7, 2019. The day after a 3-2 victory over the Leafs, the Blues became the first team to show up en masse at the Hockey Hall of Fame to present a Stanley Cup championship ring to the Hall.
As for playing without Tarasenko, the Blues were much more shorthanded last month when they lost 6-5 at Enterprise Center to the Leafs. Tarasenko, Pavel Buchnevich Colton Parayko, David Perron and Brayden Schenn all were missing in that contest due to injury or COVID-19.
After playing before only 500 fans in their previous two games on this trip due to COVID restrictions — in Ottawa and Montreal — things were closer to normal Saturday. This marked the second game at half capacity, about 10,000, at Scotiabank.
If Toronto scored the first goal in the first period, every fan in Scotiabank got a free slice of pizza Saturday. They can blame Pavel Buchnevich for going hungry.
Skating down right wing, Kyrou sent a shot off the blocker of Toronto goalie Jack Campbell. The rebound went right to Buchnevich over on left wing, who quickly fired a shot past Campbell for his 17th goal of the season. Proof positive that if you put the puck on goal, good things can happen.
With Tarasenko out, Kyrou was inserted onto the line with Thomas and Buchnevich, and the move paid quick dividends, giving the Blues a 1-0 lead just 2:58 into the contest.
It became a 2-0 Blues lead when Klim Kostin sent a snipe far side past Campbell for his fourth goal of the season. Tyler Bozak, playing for the first time since the All-Star break, sent a pass from left wing back to Kostin, who was trailing down the right side. And that was that.
But Toronto got on the board late in the period after a Kyrou turnover led to a 3-on-1 rush for the Leafs. William Nylander’s shot got past Ville Husso, who was making his fourth start in a row and his ninth in the last 11 games for the Blues.
Nylander’s shot must have been hard to pick up because the Toronto forward got another one past Husso to tie the game at 2-2 early in the second period. It was his 19th of the season, and like his first one Saturday, came off the rush — although not of the 3-on-1 variety.
Leafs fans were barely finished celebrating that score when Brayden Schenn gave the Blues the lead back with his 100th goal as a member of the Blues. It was a testament to effort, because Campbell stopped the initial Schenn shot, but as he was falling to the ice, Schenn got a stick on the puck again to knock in the rebound.
Since the start of the calendar year Schenn has more points than anyone on the Blues — 17 — on 10 goals and seven assists. For the season, Schenn has 14 goals and is creeping close to the lead pack of five Blues that have 15 goals or more.
Justin Faulk had the primary assist on the play, extending his point streak to six games.
But the Blues couldn’t escape the period with the lead, because Toronto defenseman T.J. Brodie tied the score at 3-3 with a shot from just inside the blue line with 2:16 left in the second. It appeared to deflect off the skate of Logan Brown, playing for the first time since Jan. 23.
The score followed a lengthy sequence of possession time for Toronto.
Earlier in the period, the Blues killed off a penalty against Toronto’s top-ranked power play. The Maple Leafs entered the game at 31.8% on the season, and having converted on 11 of their last 25 opportunities.
Torey Krug and Toronto’s Michael Bunting were both sent to the box for roughing, but Krug got a double minor to Bunting’s minor. Apparently, Krug was twice as rough.
This was a game of punch and counter-punch with both teams having their moments. The Blues got the next punch in, when Colton Parayko passed to David Perron down by the left net front. Perron sent the puck backdoor to Saad for a wide-open tap-on and a 4-3 St. Louis lead 4 1/2 minutes into the third.
With Saad’s 16th goal of the season, all four lines had a goal for the Blues. O’Reilly then gave the Blues a two-goal lead for the first time since the first period when he deflected in a blast from the left point by Nikko Mikkola. O’Reilly’s 11th of the season made it a 5-3 game.
With 3:17 left in the game, Buchnevich sealed the deal with an empty-netter to make it 6-3.
