ST. LOUIS — The intrigue was obvious after Wednesday’s surprising pivot against Vegas. Could the Blues keep up the stellar goaltending, stout defense, and timely scoring that came out of hiding against the Golden Knights?
Or would Jordan Binnington’s battle cry of “we’re coming” be altered to something like, “uh, never mind.”
Well, that was answered by virtue of Friday’s 9-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild at Enterprise Center. That’s two in a row, which qualifies as a winning streak, improving the record of the fifth-place Blues to 18-16-6. The Wild, in third place in the West Division, fell to 24-13-2.
During their seven-game winless streak (0-6-1) the Blues scored a not-so-grand total of eight goals. Well, they had seven midway through the game Friday. And then got Nos. 8 and 9 in the third period.
With so many proven scorers on the roster, it seemed like only a matter of time before the goals would return. But each game came and went and the goals stayed away. Would the drought ever end? The Blues scored three goals for the first time in two weeks against Vegas Wednesday.
And on Friday, the floodgates opened wide. Perhaps the old law of averages things was in play.
Among what would normally be their top nine forwards, the Blues had five players with goal droughts of eight games or more entering the game. Two of those droughts went off the boards in the opening period.
First it was Zach Sanford who ended an 11-game goal drought with what amounted to a tap-in goal off a pinpoint cross-the-crease pass from Robert Thomas on a rush that also included Tyler Bozak (who had the secondary assist).
Sanford’s goal came just 92 seconds into the contest; it took the Blues only 48 seconds to get on the board Wednesday against Vegas.
Another drought ended when Jaden Schwartz scored on a roof shot from close range that beat rookie Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen glove side, near post, at the 6:59 mark. Schwartz had not scored in the 10 previous games since he returned from injury; if you go back pre-injury, he had gone 17 games without a goal.
Before a crowd of about 4,100 could get too giddy at Enterprise, Zach Parise banged in a rebound from the near slot for Minnesota to make it a 2-1 game.
Parise’s fourth goal of the season came just 34 seconds after Schwartz’s score. But the Blues kept working, and by period’s end put two more goals on the board for a 4-1 lead. First came another goal by Schwartz at the 15:23 mark, giving him two for the night and four for the season.
Then Sammy Blais, who had been riding the bench until Wednesday, scored his fifth goal of the season and his second in as many games, just 90 seconds later.
Coupled with Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Vegas, it marked the first time since March 5 and March 6 against Los Angeles that the Blues had scored three or more goals in successive games. It also marked the first time since Feb. 20 that the Blues had scored four goals in a period — they lost that game 5-4 to San Jose.
The Blues did anything but sit on their heels with that 4-1 lead. They piled it on in the second period, with two goals by Ryan O’Reilly and one by Justin Faulk to take a 7-1 victory after two.
O’Reilly was trailing on the first goal, but came steaming down the slot to take a back pass from Blais to make it 5-1 just 69 seconds into Period 2. Then O’Reilly scored a short-handed goal after the game’s first penalty, against Faulk for slashing.
O’Reilly poked the puck loose from Victor Rask near the blueline, then raced through the neutral zone for the puck and beat Kahkonen for his team-high 15th goal of the season. So it was 6-1 Blues just 4 minutes, 39 seconds into the second.
It became 7-1 at the 8:19 mark when Faulk ended his 25-game scoring drought with his sixth goal of the season. It matched the Blues’ season high, achieved in Binnington’s “temper tantrum” game Feb. 27 in San Jose — a 7-6 Blues victory.
This tied for the second-most goals scored in the opening 30 minutes of a game in franchise history. The record was eight goals, in a 9-6 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 26, 1985.
For Minnesota, which clobbered West Division leader Colorado 8-3 on Wednesday, it was a classic case of seeing how the other half lives. And with another Blues-Wild game coming Saturday night, Minnesota coach Dean Evason couldn’t pull Kahkonen for veteran Cam Talbot.
Kahkonen just had to grin and bear it during the St. Louis onslaught. OK, he probably wasn’t grinning. Kahkonen was an impressive 12-6-0 with a 2.34 goals-against average and a save percentage of .920 prior to Friday.
In the third period, Jake Walman joined the act. After scoring his first NHL goal Wednesday against Vegas, he got his second at the 10:17 mark of the third, with a shot from distance that just got in under the crossbar.
After Carson Soucy got two minutes for boarding Robert Thomas, a hit the Blues didn’t like, Ivan Barbashev made it 9-1 with a power-play goal with 2:21 left to play. Thomas, shaken up on the play, left the for the dressing room. For Barbashev, it was his third goal of the season
