ANAHEIM, Calif. — Here’s some news for you.
Nothing traumatic happened here for the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night. Nobody nearly died, as was the case with Jay Bouwmeester last Feb. 11. And the NHL didn’t shut down indefinitely because of a pandemic, as was the case following the March 11 makeup game of the Feb. 11 contest.
The Blues won a hockey game, though, the fifth time in five tries they’ve done so to begin a two-game series this season. Despite their troubles with penalties, the power play and just plain playing defense, they now are 5-2-1 this season after a 6-1 victory at Honda Center.
That’s about a 115-point pace over a full 82-game season. So what are we nervous about, Blues fans?
In what is their second back-to-back set of the season, the Blues will go for the elusive series sweep here on Sunday against these same Ducks (3-4-2). The Blues lost their first three times in a Game 2 of a series. And what was supposed to be Game 2 of the fourth series, Thursday in Vegas, was canceled because of COVID-19 issues among the Golden Knights.
To say the Blues had a fast start Saturday would be gross understatement. How fast? Well, Jordan Kyrou fast.
They scored the fastest two goals to start a game in franchise history — with Kyrou and Zach Sanford scoring in the first 57 seconds.
Not satisfied with that record, they then scored the fastest three goals to start a game in franchise history when Kyrou scored again just 2 minutes 6 seconds into the contest. That was the fifth-fastest three goals scored to start a regular-season game in NHL history.
Kyrou’s first goal came just 20 seconds in after a well-covered Brayden Schenn sent a puck in the general direction of the Anaheim net just inside the blue line. Anaheim goalie John Gibson kicked it out to the slot— right to a charging Kyrou, who beat Gibson glove side.
Anaheim defenseman Adam Fowler had half a chance to knock the puck away before it got to Kyrou but he swung and missed.
Then it was Sanford’s turn. Maneuvering in front of the Anaheim net, he went from Gibson’s left to right. Gibson blocked the first Sanford attempt but then Sanford lifted the rebound over Gibson’s right leg for his first goal of the season and a 2-0 St. Louis lead. As noted, they were not yet one minute into play.
Before the Ducks could settle down, it was time for another Schenn-to-Kyrou connection. Schenn sent a stretch pass from center ice to Kyrou streaking down the middle of the ice. Kyrou took the pass behind the Anaheim defense and again beat Gibson glove side — this time with a low shot. It was Kyrou’s fifth of the season, the team high.
So it was 3-0 Blues just 126 seconds into the game, and that was it for Gibson. He had allowed only 13 goals in his previous seven starts this season, and had two shutouts. But he was gone now in favor of former Blue Ryan Miller.
Less than 11/2 minutes later, Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf dropped gloves with Kyle Clifford. Clifford got the best of it, including a takedown of Getzlaf to the ice. But for whatever reason, the ice slowly started tilting Anaheim’s way over the rest of the period.
The Blues didn’t help their cause over the final seven minutes with two penalties, including their third infraction this season for too many men on the ice. The Ducks, averaging only 23.5 shots on goal per game — last in the league — outshot the Blues 9-4 over the remainder of the first period after the fight.
They finally broke through when Max Jones took advantage of a Colton Parayko turnover in the St. Louis zone, stuffing in his own rebound to make it a 3-1 game.
With six seconds of power play remaining as the second period began, the Ducks seemed intent on making a game of it. They had the first shot on goal of the second. But then the Blues took over, with all kinds of zone time and all kinds of chances against Miller.
Over one stretch, the Blues outshot Anaheim 10-2, and that didn’t include a Robert Thomas wrister that hit the crossbar at the 2:38 mark. All that Duck-hunting finally paid off for the Blues when David Perron whistled a one-timer past Miller on a perfect setup by Reilly at the 7:30 mark to make it a 4-1 game.
It was O’Reilly’s fifth assist of the season, and Perron’s fourth goal.
Although they didn’t maintain it for a full 60 minutes, the Blues had a lot of spring in their step, perhaps aided by an extra off day in terms of games when Thursday’s contest with Vegas was postponed.
The Blues tacked on a couple goals early in the third period to put this one to bed. Clifford scored his second of the season on a beauty of a pass from Oskar Sundqvist just 2:59 into the period. Sundqvist made the pass while falling down. He had been tripped and a delayed penalty was in the works.
Then, with Sam Steel off for tripping Jaden Schwartz, Vince Dunn scored his second goal of the season and just the Blues’ third power play goal of the season. Dunn was back in the lineup after being benched for Tuesday’s game.
The six-pack of goals was unexpected given Anaheim’s stingy ways this season. The Ducks had allowed only 17 goals all season entering Saturday’s contest, with a team goals-against average of just 2.13.
