LOS ANGELES — Just eight games into this hockey season, the Blues are done with the Los Angeles Kings. Finished. See you next season.
And based on the outcome of Wednesday’s contest at Staples Center, good riddance. After two victories over the Kings in St. Louis last month, the Blues were looking to sweep the three-game season series between the teams.
Instead, they got a 3-2 loss that dropped their record to 6-1-1 for the season. Brandon Saad returned from the COVID list, but the team now is just 1-1-1 with captain Ryan O’Reilly sidelined with COVID. Arthur Kaliyev scored what proved to be the game-winner in the fourth round of the shootout.
The Blues went 9-1-2 in California during last season’s COVID condensed schedule — they don’t make the playoffs without that dominance in the Golden State. But Wednesday’s contest was one of only five in Cali this season.
The Blues have games at San Jose (Thursday) and Anaheim (Sunday), but make only one additional trip to California — playing only San Jose and Anaheim on that road swing in late April.
The secret to that past California success?
“Vitamin D. I don’t know,” defenseman Robert Bortuzzo offered.
On Wednesday, it was a case of not enough D.
Both teams opened the game looking like they hadn’t played in a while. Which in fact was the case. The Blues hadn’t played since Saturday; the Kings since Sunday. So it was a sluggish start before a light crowd at Staples. (None of the California teams are drawing well so far this season.)
The Blues had the better of the chances in the first period, outshooting LA 10-6. But high-danger chances were few and far between. Torey Krug had a clean look in the slot at just under four minutes in, as did Marco Scandella a little later from a similar spot on the ice. Perhaps the best chance came on a backdoor wrister from Vladimir Tarasenko from the right circle, but Jonathan Quick got over in time to make the save.
With 1 1/2 minutes left in the opening period, Pavel Buchnevich found himself alone near the net to Quick’s left, but couldn’t lift his shot past the LA goalie.
The Kings’ best chance came on a breakaway by Lias Andersson about 7 1/2 minutes in. Andersson faked Jordan Binnington out of position but couldn’t control the puck trying to go backhand.
The period’s only penalty was against Tyler Bozak for tripping, but the Blues killed it off with little drama, making them 8 for 8 on the penalty kill against the Kings this season and 22 for 24 overall.
LA had more jump in its step to begin the second period, with Adrian Kempe stopped alone in the slot by Binnington just 13 seconds in, following a Blues turnover deep in their own. So that could have been a disaster for St. Louis. Little more than a minute leader, the Kings were back on the power play after Colton Parayko was whistled for hooking Dustin Brown.
But the Blues killed it off and slowly started gathering momentum as the period progressed. They got their first power play of the night at the 6:43 mark when Alex Edler was sent off for interference on Buchnevich. It didn’t take long for the St. Louis power play, which entered the night ranked second in the league, to take advantage.
Just five seconds in fact. Brayden Schenn won the faceoff to start the power play. Krug got the puck, and sent it across ice to Tarasenko who sent a blast from the right point at Quick. Quick left a rebound, and there was Schenn to poke it in for his third goal of the season.
That took all of five seconds and the Blues led 1-0. That made them 5 for 10 on the power play against Los Angeles this season. The assist for Tarasenko extended his point streak to seven games, a team-best so far this season. It also gave Tarasenko 452 points in his career — 222 goals, 230 assists — tying him with Hall of Famer Al MacInnis for eight place in franchise history.
The Blues started to assert themselves and had an excellent chance to go up 2-0 late in the period when Saad broke out on a 2-on-1 flanked to his right by Buchnevich. Quick made the save on Saad, who was back after missing four games with COVID. And then strangely, Saad was called for goalie interference even though Edler clearing shoved Saad into Quick, knocking the net off its moorings.
Once again, the Blues’ penalty kill unit, which entered the game ranked second in the league, was up to the task, killing off a penalty that carried over to the first 50 seconds of the third period.
Perhaps spurred on by the puck possession from that power play, the Kings were on the attack at the start of the third period. They outshot the Blues 6-2 in the first 8 1/2 minutes of the period, and one of them got behind Binnington to tie the game. It was a pretty innocent-looking play.
But Kaliyev, with Scandella in pretty good position defensively, beat Binnington near-side, stick-side with a quick release.
Six minutes after the Kaliyev goal, the Kings took a 2-1 lead on a rebound shot by Adrian Kempe. Binnington made a strong save on Alex Iafallo at the start of the sequence but then found himself out of the net and out of position. Before Binnington could re-establish himself in the net, Kempe won a scramble for the puck and scored with 7:45 left to play.
But the Blues had one last-ditch rush, with Binnington headed to bench (again) for an extra attacking. Quick made an excellent save on Tarasenko, but Krug swooped in to bang home the rebound with 8.1 seconds remaining, tying the game at 2. It was a shorthanded goal with Robert Thomas off for hooking.
Binnington was spectacular in overtime stopping eight shots, including a sparkling backdoor glove save on Phillip Danault.
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