ST. LOUIS — After winning successive home games for the first time this season, the Blues went for three in a row at Enterprise Center and a weekend sweep of the Minnesota Wild in their pursuit of a playoff berth in the West Division.
Mission accomplished. The Blues improved to 7-9-4 at home this season, which isn’t great but is considerably better than the 4-9-4 mark they held just a few days ago. This one didn’t come easy. Not by a longshot. But Ryan O’Reilly’s backhand goal with two seconds left in OT capped an impressive comeback.
In the process, Saturday’s 3-2 overtime win over Minnesota catapulted the Blues to fourth place — and the final playoff spot in the West Division at least for now. At 19-16-6, the Blues have 44 points. Idle Arizona (19-17-5) has 43 points. Both teams have played 41 games, with 15 left to play.
This was only Game 3 in the season series between the Blues and Wild; the teams will do it again Monday in St. Paul.
The Blues’ offense, in terms of shots, flow, zone time — and on Friday, goals — looked nothing like the first two matchups. Even in a 2-0 loss at Minnesota on March 25, the Blues outshot the Wild 37-11 and had far more scoring chances. Friday night, the Blues had 38 shots on goal, and of course, nine goals.
Those nine goals allowed by Minnesota was a Wild franchise record and the 9-1 defeat was the most lopsided setback in Wild history. But the Blues struggled to get to 20 shots on goal Saturday.
Given the nature of Friday’s game, coach Craig Berube was able to roll four lines and conserve minutes. For example, no Blues forward played more than 16 minutes 8 seconds Friday, and no Blues defenseman played more than 21:16.
But the Blues didn’t look all that fresh Saturday; they were slower to the puck and didn’t win as may puck battles as the night before. And of course, there was a difference in goal. After treating rookie Kaapo Kahkonen like a piñata on Friday, they face veteran Cam Talbot on Saturday.
It was Talbot who registered the 37-shot shutout on March 25. If only the Blues could have carried some of those nine goals over from Friday. But they got a goal from Mike Hoffman, his second of the game and 11th of the season with 41.6 seconds left to send the game into OT.
Rather than go with Jordan Binnington in back-to-back games for the second time this season, Berube opted for backup Ville Husso, who had been pulled in his last start after allowing five goals to the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday in 1 1/2 periods.
With Robert Thomas out with an upper-body injury sustained in Friday’s game, Hoffman drew into the lineup and made his presence felt. With the Blues trailing 1-0 early in the second period, Hoffman fired in his 10th goal of the season to tie the game at the 3:07 mark.
It came on a one-timer from one of his favorite places on the ice — the right circle. And it came on the power play with Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson-Ek off for high-sticking Torey Krug. For Hoffman, known for his power-play success over the years, it was just his second power-play goal for the Blues this season.
With the Hoffman goal, the Blues slowly started to assert themselves in the second period and appeared on the verge of taking control of the game. Minnesota struggled to get anything going offensively, without a shot on goal for the first 13 minutes-plus of the period.
But then came a hooking penalty on Marco Scandella at the 16:47 mark. The result was another goal late in the period, on a Matt Dumba with just 1:48 to play in the second. Dumba’s sixth goal of the year snapped a 1-1 tie and put the pressure on the Blues entering the third period.
The Blues had been 20 for 22 on the penalty kill over their last seven-plus games killing 13 in a row before the Dumba score.
Minnesota outshot the Blues 8-1 over the final six minutes-plus of the period.
There was no four-goal first period by the Blues this time around, as was the case in Friday’s 9-1 St. Louis rout. Nothing even close to that. In fact, the Blues found themselves in familiar territory from the past, allowing the game’s first goal on a Nico Sturm shot that probably should’ve been stopped by Husso.
Sturm’s fifth goal of the season came with just 95 seconds left in the period and was the result of a turnover by Jake Walman. Walman had the puck poked away just as he was about to cross the blueline into the St. Louis offensive zone.
Minnesota went back the other way and there was no backup for Walman defensively because Colton Parayko stumbled heading to the Blues’ bench for a change. Parayko couldn’t get up and recover in time to provide a safety net after the Walman turnover, which gave Strum clear sailing.
From the outset, the Wild were tighter defensively and on the forecheck, which prevented the Blues from getting to the rush game that was so effective Friday. The Blues had only six shots on goal in the period, with little zone time and little in the way of serious chances against Talbot.
