ST. LOUIS — For one of the rare times against Vegas, the Blues outshot the Golden Knights and had plenty of scoring chances.
But after rallying from a two-goal deficit, the Blues lost the lead on a puck that deflected in off a Vegas helmet. And then an empty-netter by former Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo - the 20th allowed by the Blues this season - gave Vegas a 5-3 victory over the Blues on Sunday at Enterprise Center.
The Blues fell to 29-32-5 for the season; the Western Conference-leading Knights improved to 41-20-6.
Despite falling behind 3-1 early in the second period, the Blues kept skating and had several good chances, including one that Jordan Kyrou buried for his 30th goal of the season. With coach Craig Berube moving Pavel Buchnevich from center to wing on a line with Kyrou and Robert Thomas, the three took off down the ice on a rush. Buchnevich passed from right wing to the middle to Thomas, who quickly shuffled it over to Kyrou who had an open backdoor for the goal with 4:41 remaining in the second.
That made it a 3-2 game entering the third period. The assist extended Buchnevich’s point streak to nine games, just three shy of his career high set last season.
Just 3:41 into the second period it became a 3-3 game when Tyler Pitlick deflected in a shot from Marco Scandella at the net front. For Pitlick, who was a healthy scratch the past two games after appearing in 26 straight contests, the goal was his fifth of the season but his second in his last four games played. It also marked his 100th career point.
But the score didn’t stay tied for long. In a scramble situation in front of the St. Louis net, 22-year-old Pavel Dorofeyev – playing in just his sixth NHL game – gave Vegas a 4-3 lead at the 5:23 mark of the third period. It was his first NHL game, and it came on a puck that deflected off the front of his helmet and into the goal. (We kid you not.)
Czech mates
Entering Sunday’s game, the Blues had gone 3-for-38 on the power play in the 10 games since the Ryan O’Reilly trade. Jakob Vrana helped those numbers with a power play goal tying the game at 1-1 at the 13:26 mark of the opening period.
His second goal in four games with the Blues came with Vegas’ Phil Kessel in the box for hooking Tyler Tucker. Vrana’s goal came against a fellow native of Prague in the Czech Republic – Vegas goalie Jiri Patera. Patera, 24, played in his first NHL game Sunday.
On the attack
William Karlsson opened the scoring at the 8:05 mark of the game, getting to a loose puck first at the net front and scoring his 13th goal on a backhand.
After Vrana’s goal tied things up after the opening period, Vegas scored the first two goals of the second period to take a 3-1 lead. First it was Jonathan Marchessault beating Jordan Binnington through the five-hole on a goal that surely would qualify as one that Binnington would want back.
That goal, Marchessault’s 21st of the season, came just 28 seconds into the second period. Less than two minutes later, the Vegas lead grew to 3-1 when Binnington left a big round after a shot by Brett Howden – and unfortunately for the Blues – it went directly to Michael Amadio in the right circle for his 11th goal of the season from the backdoor.
Hello, Barby
Just two weeks after being traded to Vegas for prospect Zac Dean, Ivan Barbashev returned to Enterprise Center, where he spent parts of seven seasons, 410 regular-season games and one Stanley Cup with the Blues.
Just a little more than four minutes into the game, Barbashev caught Binnington trying to clear the puck behind the net, came away with the puck, circled around in front, but couldn’t connect on a backhand attempt toward an open net.
During a break later in the period, the Blues played a Barbashev tribute video on the arena videoboard including a couple of sequences of Barbashev holding the Cup from the 2018-19 season. He received a standing ovation – of course – from the Enterprise fans.
Barbashev has played seven games with the Golden Knights since the trade, recording two goals (both against Montreal) and three assists.
Dean, meanwhile, had a goal and an assist Sunday playing for Gatineau in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and was named the game’s No. 1 star in a 5-2 victory over Sherbrooke. Dean has 59 points (27 goals, 32 assists) in 44 games for Gatineau.
