ST. LOUIS — For the second night in a row, the Blues wiped out a two-goal deficit, showing determination and resiliency. For the second night in a row, overtime seemed imminent.
And yet, for the second night in a row, the Blues came away empty-handed. Without a point. This time it was a 5-4 loss to the Edmonton Oilers before a sellout crowd of 18,096 at Enterprise Center.
Coming on the heels of a late 3-2 loss in Carolina, it’s the third loss in a row for the Blues (0-2-1) who fell to 8-4-2 on the season. Edmonton improved to 11-3-0.
The Blues controlled most of the first period. They got a power play goal from Jordan Kyrou. And with the period winding down, they were set to go into the locker room up 1-0.
Then Connor McDavid happened. With a mere 4.1 seconds remaining in the period, McDavid took a pass from Zach Hyman and skated in for a close-in wrist shot that trickled past goalie Jordan Binnington and in.
Colton Parayko, who has struggled lately, could have played it better. He had good position on McDavid but couldn’t get a body on him or a stick on the puck
For McDavid, it was only his fourth goal in 16 games over his career against the Blues. But his 10th goal of this season extended his current point streak to 14 games and gave him 600 points in his still-young NHL career. At 24 years, 305 days old, McDavid is the eighth-youngest player in NHL history to reach 600 career points.
Earlier in the period, the Blues scored a power play goal for the fourth consecutive game. The second power play unit has done most of the damage lately, and that was the case Sunday with Jordan Kyrou giving the Blues a 1-0 lead with 5:42 to go in the first period off a feed from Pavel Buchnevich.
It was Kyrou’s sixth goal of the season and his fourth in four games.
But goals allowed late in a period can be deflating, and that appeared to be the case after the McDavid goal tied it a 1-1. Keep in mind, an apparent power play goal by Ivan Barbashev was wiped out on a successful offside challenge by Edmonton with 8:14 left in the first. (It was Parayko who was offside.)
Fourteen seconds were put back on the clock because of the successful challenge, otherwise there’s no goal by McDavid with 4.1 seconds. Time would have expired.
In any event, Edmonton took that momentum into the second period. With Robert Thomas off for his second hooking penalty of the game, the other Edmonton superstar – Leon Draisaitl – made it a 2-1 lead for the visitors. Draisaitl got one past Binnington for his league-leading 15th goal.
Enter Robert Bortuzzo. We’ve seen Bortuzzo throw his body around, as he’s known to do. We’ve seen him block shots – he blocks plenty of them. On social media, we’ve even seen him dressed as a Peloton girl exercising as a Halloween gag.
What we hadn’t seen was a Bortuzzo goal this season. Until midway through the second period, that is. With the Blues buzzing around the Edmonton net, Bortuzzo crept into the right circle and buried a pass from Tyler Bozak past Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen to tie the game.
It was the first goal of the season for Bortuzzo, who didn’t even have a shot attempt – on goal, blocked or one that missed the net – in the first six games of the season. He has 18 goals for his career.
But the good feelings didn’t last for the Blues. Goals by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ryan McLeod – a mere eight seconds apart – gave Edmonton a 4-2 lead with less than four minutes left in the second. For the Ryans, it was the first goal of the season for Nugent-Hopkins, who entered the game with a league-high 17 assists. And the first goal of his NHL career for McLeod.
The Blues had trouble with zone exits that preceded both goals – first Jake Walman couldn’t clear the puck and then Parayko.
But the Blues bounced back in the third period. Barbashev,, remember, had a power play goal disallowed because of the offside challenge in the first period. He missed on at least one other prime chance later in the game, and then appeared to hit the crossbar on yet another near-miss in the third period.
But wait. Twenty-five seconds after the crossbar shot, the horn blew stopping play. On a league replay, it was determined that the Barbashev shot actually had tucked under the crossbar for a goal _ Barbashev’s fourth of the season and first since the fourth game of the season.
So it was a 4-3 game. The 25 seconds were put back on the clock, with the goal coming 4:06 into the third. The Russian theme continued less than four minutes later when Pavel Buchnevich skated in and fed a net-front pass across the crease to Vladimir Tarasenko for a tap-in goal. With 7:48 gone in the third, it was suddenly a 4-4 game.
For Tarasenko, it was his seventh goal of the season, and third goal in as many games. In all three games, it has been a game-tying goal in the third period.
Overtime appeared imminent, but with 27.8 seconds left, Kailer Yamamoto beat Tarasenko down the ice and shot past Parayko for a 5-4 Edmonton win.
