LOS ANGELES — The last time the St. Louis Blues played the Los Angeles Kings, they couldn’t score and couldn’t win. A 2-1 loss to LA just nine days ago marked the first time since 2018 that the Blues had lost three consecutive home games in regulation.
It took an Oskar Sundqvist goal with just 106 seconds left in that Feb. 24 contest to snap a Blues scoreless streak of 139 minutes 33 seconds.
The Blues met Los Angeles again on Friday; only now they’re scoring and winning. And on the road. A 3-2 overtime triumph at Staples Center gave the revived Blues (14-8-2) a four-game winning streak, matching their longest of the season.
Mike Hoffman scored the goal, his seventh of the season with 1:30 left in OT on a one-timer from the right circle. The Blues had a 4-on-3 going at the time because LA was about to be penalized for too many men on the ice. (For the second time in the game.)
All have come on the road, where the club is now a rather astounding 10-2 this season. It’s the quickest they’ve reached double figures in road wins in franchise history.
The usually pesky Kings (9-8-5) are headed in the other direction. They left St. Louis with a league-best six-game winning streak nine days ago. After Friday’s setback, they are winless in their last four (0-2-2).
The Blues didn’t get their fourth power play of this season until they were nine games in. There were lots of hard times along the way with the man advantage. But now? When David Perron’s power play goal just 2 minutes 8 seconds into Friday’s game gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead, it made it four Blues power plays, in four tries, over four periods.
And it came against one of the top penalty kill units in the league. On the play, Brayden Schenn helped keep the puck while getting crumpled to the ice along the boards by a Kings defender. Next, Ryan O’Reilly found Perron on the far edge of the left circle.
Perron’s shot elevated after hitting the stick of Alex Iafallo and beat Kings goalie Calvin Petersen high and glove side for his eighth goal of the season. It also kept his point streak going at five games, matching his season high.
Following the morning skate, Craig Berube talked about the importance of special teams against a Kings team that is in the NHL’s top 10 in both power play and penalty kill. That came into play in the opening period not just with Perron’s power play goal, but also with the Blues’ penalty kill.
Only 75 seconds after Perron’s goal, former King Kyle Clifford went off for cross-checking. Late in the period, with 4:57 left, Zach Sanford went off for hooking. But the Blues killed off both penalties against an LA unit that entered with the top power play in the West Division at 25.0%.
The Kings outshot the Blues 12-6 in the period, but only two of them came on the power play. Ville Husso, making his second start in five days, was sharp in goal, stopping Carl Grundstrom and Dustin Brown from close range.
The Blues got another power play eight minutes into the second period when Tobias Bjornfot was sent off for hooking Nathan Walker. The Blues had very good puck movement and a couple of good chances but their streak ended at four successive power play goals.
The game settled into a tight-checking, physical contest with not many shots for either side in the second. The Blues stuck to their plan to dump and chase and forecheck, playing with discipline and focus. As the period was winding down and it looked like the Blues would take their 1-0 lead into the third, Jeff Carter tied things up for the Kings.
On a quick counter, Carter got behind the St. Louis defense, and went weakside with three Blues caught puck-watching near the blue line. Carter took a backdoor pass from Andreas Athansiou and closed in on Husso, faking to his right and then going left with a backhand for his fifth goal with just 3:19 left in the period.
The Blues had only five shots on goal in the period but had some bad puck luck. O’Reilly hit the post on a clean look from the slot with 1:43 in the period. Early in the period, Hoffman couldn’t quite connect on a tap-in attempt on a rebound of a Sammy Blais shot.
Sanford was back in the box with 1:12 left in the second on another hooking infraction. The Blues took it into the third period with little trouble still tied at 1-all. But once the third period started, the Blues couldn’t kill off the final 48 seconds of that man advantage.
Anze Kopitar sent a crossing pass right through the crease. Brown and Justin Faulk wrestled for position and the puck at the net front, with the puck deflecting in of a skate for a 2-1 Los Angeles lead with just 11 seconds left on the power play.
Brown has been a Blues-killer this year. That was his 12th goal of the season, five of which have come in five games against St. Louis.
The Blues picked up the intensity after falling behind, but any night when you struggle to get to 20 shots on goal is not a good night. Making matters worse, the injury bug struck again when Sundqvist went off during the final period, shaken up in a corner scrum. He did not return, leaving the Blues a forward short.
Husso went to the bench with 2:20 left, and the Kings got greedy trying to score an empty net goal. Hoffman got back in time to prevent the empty-netter, and the results was a 3-on-2 break with Perron skating in for his second goal of the night and the game-tying score with 43.5 seconds left.
