If the St. Louis Blues have done one thing right this young season, it’s winning the first game of a two-game series. They’re 3-for-3 on that front after Saturday’s 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings at Enterprise Center.
Lately, bad things have happened to the Blues when LA comes to town. Last season, Vladimir Tarasenko suffered another left shoulder injury, requiring another left shoulder surgery, in a 5-2 Blues win on Oct. 24, 2019.
Two years ago, Mike Yeo was fired about an hour after the Blues were blanked by the last-place Los Angeles Kings 2-0 on Nov. 19, 2018. Some guy named Craig Berube was promoted to interim head coach that night. Waterloo, Iowa’s Calvin Petersen, who started for the Kings in goal that night, was the starter Saturday.
This time it was all good. The only thing that happened Saturday night was another Blues win, their fourth in a row over the Kings.
The Blues improved to 3-1-1, while Los Angeles fell to 1-2-2 after their first road game of the season. The Blues will go for their first series sweep at 7 p.m. Sunday here in the team’s first true back-to-back of the season.
The Blues entered the game with only six players scoring goals in their first four games. But three Blues joined the goal-scoring club by the end of a second period that featured some ups and downs.
As was the case in the opening period, the Blues were slow to get going at the start of the second, with the Kings needing only 57 seconds to tie the game at 1-all on Adrian Kempe’s third goal of the season.
But then came Vince Dunn’s first goal of the season and David Perron’s first — just 41/2 minutes apart. Dunn, who has been playing well the last couple of games, skipped a well-placed wrist shot over Petersen’s glove to break the 1-1 tie at the 2:53 mark of the period.
Then, Perron took over with a little assist from Robert Thomas. Actually, another impressive assist. Working hard in the LA Kings zone, Perron stole a pass intended for Gabriel Vilardi, and then worked a give-and-go with Thomas. Thomas sent a Perron pass right back at him with a dazzling no-look backhand.
The Blues were up 3-1 and rolling. Well, not quite. The Blues made it through the first period without a penalty, but then started a parade to the box — four all told before the period was out. They killed off the first two, making them 10-for-10 over the last game and a half.
They appeared well on their way to 11-for-11, when it happened again. Too many men on the ice. As Zach Sanford was leaving the ice, Ivan Barbashev and Jaden Schwartz hopped over the boards and on the ice. Ooops!
It was their second infraction for too many men in the last two games, and it gave LA a 5-on-3 advantage for 35 seconds. The Blues didn’t need the full 35. Dustin Brown scored down low through the backdoor and the Blues lead had shrunk to 3-2 with 3:31 left in the second.
The Blues spent the third period trying to protect that lead. The Kings had much of the momentum, with a 7-3 edge in shots on goal until Mike Anderson was sent off for holding Jaden Schwartz with 8:40 left to play. The Blues had a couple of chances in close, but their time of possession was sporadic.
This was third period that kept the cardboard cutouts on the edge of their seats.
That was especially true when Tyler Bozak was sent off for slashing with 3:06 remaining to play. The 5-on-4 then became a 6-on-4 when the Kings pulled their goalie. But the Blues killed off the penalty and then got some late insurance on Schwartz’s empty-net goal with 1.2 seconds left.
The Blues were shaky off the opening faceoff to start the game, sloppy in their own end. Almost careless at times. That led to some prime LA chances in the opening minutes, but Jordan Binnington was up to the task. He turned away a point-blank shot from Vilardi and then, with a little help from Dunn, a wraparound attempt by Lias Andersson on the same sequence.
Next came Sean Walker with a high-danger attempt just over two minutes into the game. At one point, the Blues were up 10-3 in shots on goal, but it seemed more like 10-3 Kings due to the quality scoring chances by the visitors.
Along the way, Binnington benefitted from a goalie’s best friend: a good, firm goal post. Kempe hit the post with 9:44 left in the period.
But it was the Blues who struck first, on of all things, a power play goal. Yes, after an 0-for-14 start with the man advantage St. Louis got its first power play goal of the season with Kurtis MacDermid off for slashing Thomas with 8:02 left in the period play.
The Blues lost the faceoff at the start of the power play, and it took them about 30 seconds to regain possess and gain the LA zone. But once they got there, they started generating some good puck movement.
Perron sent a pass from left wing to Torey Krug at the point, and Krug’s shot deflected off the Kings’ Blake Lizotte and past Petersen with 6:48 remaining. It was Krug’s first goal as a member of the Blues. Ryan O’Reilly has a secondary assist on the play, giving him 100 assists as a member of the Blues.
