LAS VEGAS – Two days after avoiding a nine-game losing streak, the St. Louis Blues ended a nine-game winning streak by the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
Just a couple of blocks off the Vegas Strip, the Blues improved to 5-8-0 with 3-2 triumph for their second straight victory. The Golden Knights, who were hoping to tie a franchise record with their 10th straight win, fell to 13-3-0 for the season.
The next stop for St. Louis is Colorado and the defending Stanley Cup-champion Avalanche. Perhaps the arrival there of the players’ mothers for the team’s very first Mom’s trip will provide an additional spark. Or maybe not. We’ll see.
The Blues had a chance to pull away at the start of the third period, with two power play chances in the opening 2:41, but couldn’t convert.
So they had to do it the hard way. But somehow the Blues were able to hang on over the third period despite being outshot be Vegas 22-5 in a scoreless final period.
Ryan O'Reilly scored what proved to be the game winner late in the second period.
When St. Louis actor Jon Hamm is on a Blues broadcast good things usually happen – especially for Ivan Barbashev. Well, Hamm was on the Bally Sports Midwest telecast, wearing a green St. Patrick’s Day Barbashev jersey.
And Barbashev scored to tie the game at 2-2 late in the second period. Honestly, most of the credit should go to Brayden Schenn and Barbashev – and not Hamm. Barbashev has scored a couple of times in the past with Hamm in the booth – he was gone this time when Barbashev scored.
On the sequence, Vegas goalie Adin Hill got a little careless trying to clear the puck behind his net.
A hustling Schenn got to the puck behind the net and sent it net front. Schenn’s pass deflected off Hill’s stick to Barbashev who buried it for his second goal of the season with 3:54 left in the period.
Forty seconds later, it was 3-2 Blues on a Ryan O’Reilly goal set up by Blues newcomer Josh Leivo. Against San Jose, fed Brandon Saad from behind the net for a late second-period goal that gave the Blues a 3-2 lead.
Leivo, called up Wednesday from Springfield, did the same thing Saturday late in the second, with O’Reilly – playing in his 300th Blues game — the beneficiary this time.
Those two goals erased a 2-1 Vegas lead after an early second-period goal by Phil Kessel that seemed to surprise Jordan Binnington.
The Blues had most everything going their way in the first 10 minutes of play. They had the edge in possession time, they were checking well, Vegas was having trouble getting anything going.
And then at the 9:47 mark, Saad beat Hill with a near-side roof shot from the left circle to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead. It was Saad’s second goal in as many games. Defenseman Calle Rosen, one of the heroes of the San Jose game, had the primary assist. O’Reilly had the secondary assist, his very first of the season.
Just 26 seconds after that goal, the Blues had a chance to make it 2-0 when the Knights’ Brett Howden went to the box for cross-checking Torey Krug. But as has frequently been the case this season, the Blues couldn’t stand the prosperity.
Chandler Stephenson broke free on the Vegas penalty kill – it was just him and Binnington. But Stephenson’s backhander sailed wide. Crisis averted.
Not quite. Three Blues followed Stephenson over to the right half-wall near the Blues’ bench attempting retrieve the puck. But no one bothered to pick up Reilly Smith, who skated all by himself down the slot, took a pass from Stephenson and whipped one past Binnington.
No ifs, ands or buts – it was an inexcusable play by the Blues, and a 1-1 game just 59 seconds after the Saad score.
It was the first shorthanded goal – for or against the Blues this season.
Turnovers in their own zone have been a bugaboo for the Blues much of this season, and a Justin Faulk giveaway as the period wound down ended up on the stick of Howden for a mini-breakaway. But Howden’s wrister went wide with 2:13 left in the period and it remained a 1-1 game.
Slippery when wet
The condition of the ice at T-Mobile was far from ideal. Three Blues slipped and fell, skating by themselves, in the early going. And there were a few other times in the opening minutes when the Blues went down way too easy after contact, seeming to lose their footing.
