CALGARY, Alberta — All the ingredients were present for another disaster.
The completion of a Western road trip. Three games in four days. And the second game of a back-to-back in Calgary.
Just like the last time the St. Louis Blues visited the C of Red, aka the Scotiabank Saddledome. You might recall how that one ended. The Blues went up in, well, Flames, losing 7-1 in their most lopsided defeat of the season.
Jordan Binnington was pulled after two periods, allowing all seven goals. The Blues were outshot 48-21, including 18-2 in the second period.
There was no disaster this time. Oh, the shots were lopsided once again, but the Blues hung in and hung in, got some impressive goaltending by Ville Husso and took a 3-2 lead into the third period.
Would the Blues make a trip to Pacific Division-leading Calgary and live to tell about it?
Yes, thanks to some Thunder from Down Under, the Blues pulled out an improbable 6-4 victory over the Flames. Nathan Walker's goal from the slot, on a picture-perfect pass, broke a 3-3 tie with just 1:56 to go.
It took two empty-net goals (Ivan Barbashev and Brandon Saad) sandwiched around a Dillon Dube goal in the final minute to make it so.
The Blues improved to 38-20-10 on the season, matching their high-water mark of the season at 18 games above .500.
So the Blues are done with Canadian teams for the regular season. They have just 14 games remaining — seven on the road and seven at home, starting with a four-game homestand this coming week in which three of the four visitors are non-playoff teams. (Which as we’ve seen this season isn’t necessarily a good thing for the Blues.)
For only the second time in nine games, the Blues scored the game’s first goal. And it didn’t take long. Justin Faulk’s shot from the right point was deflected in by Robert Thomas just 54 seconds into the contest.
It was the second-quickest goal scored by the Blues this season, exceeded only by Brandon Saad (13 seconds) against Anaheim on Nov. 7. For Thomas, it was his 15th goal of the season, his third game in a row with a goal.
But any momentum for the Blues was fleeting. Calgary made itself right at home in front of Husso, the Blues seemed a little skittish with the puck, and the Flames were winning most of the puck battles. Other than that, all was well for St. Louis.
Following the Thomas goal, Calgary got the next 10 shots on goal in the game. Shot No. 3 in that Calgary sequence, a net-front backhand by Brett Ritchie, got past Husso at the 4:47 mark to tie the game. It was a strange sequence, where the Blues had a couple of chances to clear and then the puck took a funny bounce to the front of the crease.
Husso looked like he was in position to clear the puck without too much trouble, but Ritchie got in quickly to score just his second goal of the season to tie the game at 1-all.
Calgary kept up the pressure and cashed in when Johnny Gaudreau got behind Justin Faulk at the blueline for a breakaway and whistled a shot past Husso to make it 2-1.
But the Blues slowly stabilized and evened things up after the game’s first penalty, a high-sticking infraction by Christopher Tanev drawn by Pavel Buchnevich. Brayden Schenn carried the puck down the right boards then circled back to find a trailing Ryan O’Reilly in the right faceoff circle
O’Reilly’s quick wrister beat Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom with 2:29 left in the first. So even though the Blues were outshot 16-6 in the period, they went into the locker room tied 2-2 after O’Reilly’s 16th goal of the season.
Which was an improvement of sorts over the Jan. 24 game. The Blues were outshot in similar fashion in that one in the opening period — 17-7 — and trailed 3-1 at the first intermission. And then gave up four goals in the second.
The Blues didn’t crumble in the second period this time around. Oh, Calgary still threw a lot at them. At times it looked like the Flames were on one continuous power play, their possession time was so constant.
At times Husso looked like the carnival target in the shooting gallery. His best save of the period was on Milan Lucic on a two-on-one break.
But the Blues kept the Flames off the scoreboard in the period, with Calgary hitting the post a couple of times. (O’Reilly also hit a post for the Blues.)
With the period winding down, the Blues started to get some possession time. And in one such sequence, David Perron waited and waited in the left faceoff circle before zipping a cross-ice pass to Faulk who came charging in for a backdoor goal. His ninth of the season made it a 3-2 Blues lead with 6:25 left in the second.
If ever a team was going to get tired in the third period Saturday, it figured to be the Blues. But for the first 61/2 minutes are so, they played it even-Steven with Calgary. One measure of how invested they were in this game came when Marco Scandella took a shot off the body and attempted to crawl over to the bench. Up from behind came Colton Parayko, literally pushing Scandella toward the bench.
But midway through the period, Calgary turned up the heat on offense. After a couple of mad saves by Husso, he was prone on the ice in a net-front scrum and in swooped the Flames’ Noah Hanifin for his seventh goal of the season and a 3-3 game with 9:17 to play.
