LAS VEGAS — Vince Dunn was a healthy scratch for the first time since 2018.
The entire Vegas Golden Knights coaching staff was a no-show due to COVID-19 protocols.
In case you missed it, Alex Pietrangelo now plays for Vegas.
And it snowed in Vegas, baby, for the second day in a row.
So far 2021 is full of surprises. Perhaps one of those surprises was the St. Louis Blues toppling the high-flying Knights 5-4 in a shootout at T-Mobile Arena. Brayden Schenn scored what proved to be the shootout winner. Vegas entered the evening with the best record in the West Division (5-1) and tied for the overall lead in the NHL with 10 points.
Well, they’re at 11 points and 5-1-1. The Blues, winning for the fourth time to start a series, improved to 4-2-1, with the teams meeting again here on Thursday. Now in their fourth season of existence, the Golden Knights have yet to beat the Blues in regulation during the regular season. The Blues are now 6-0-4 against Vegas.
If you thought coach Craig Berube was upset over a pair of botched plays by Dunn that led directly to Los Angeles Kings goals in Sunday’s 6-3 loss, you were right. With trade rumors now swirling around Dunn, the young defenseman was a healthy scratch for the first time since Oct. 13, 2018 (at Chicago) and missed just the 12th regular-season game of his career.
Meanwhile, out of what the Knights called an abundance of caution, the entire Vegas coaching staff spent the night self-isolating. General manager Kelly McCrimmon was behind the bench, getting some help from Vegas’s American Hockey League team, the Henderson Silver Knights.
This was a wide-open game, more suited to the Vegas style. But a quicker more skilled Blues team is better suited to this kind of game this season and led 4-2 after two periods. The highlight of the second period was young Jordan Kyrou.
He came up with a takeaway on the Blues’ end of the ice, outraced and outmuscled Pietrangelo for puck control then rifled a wrister from 13 feet past Robin Lehner to give St. Louis that 4-2 lead. Pietrangelo reacted by rocking his head back in exasperation, and then appeared to utter an expletive on his way to the Vegas bench.
Late in the period, Justin Faulk became the first member of the Blues to drop the gloves. He fought Vegas captain Mark Stone to a draw near the St. Louis net with 4 minutes 16 seconds remaining in the period. Max Pacioretty had scored earlier in the period to temporarily cut St. Louis’ lead to 3-2.
Even with a two-goal lead for the Blues entering the third period, recent history here suggest that Vegas would make a run. After all the Blues were up 3-0 at T-Mobile on Jan. 4 of last season only to lose 5-4 in overtime. Five weeks later that season, the Blues were up 4-2 only to lose 6-5 in overtime on a night that Zach Sanford scored four goals.
The parade to the penalty box, usually something that hits the Blues in the second period, waited until Period No. 3 this time. Starting with Colton Parayko’s delay of game penalty just 56 seconds in, the Blues were whistled for four infractions in the first 10:15 of the third.
When a Parayko slashing penalty was followed by a Marco Scandella cross-checking penalty, the Golden Knights had a 5-on-3 advantage for 38 seconds. They needed only 20 seconds of the 38 to make it a 4-3 game, with Pacioretty scoring from distance through traffic for his second goal of the night.
That came less than a minute after an Alex Tuch goal. That made Vegas 1-for-5 on the power play for the night and just 3 for 25 for the season. And with just 3:25 to play it became a 4-4 game when Pacioretty scored his seventh NHL hat trick with an even strength goal in the near slot.
Little more than three minutes into the game, Vegas struck first. Tuch finish off a 2-on-1 rush with his third goal of the season at the 3:17 mark.
Then the Blues got busy, more specifically David Perron. The former Golden Knight took a pass from behind the net from Ryan O’Reilly and beat Lehner from a tight angle.
Four minutes later, Perron struck again on the power play. O’Reilly got a faceoff win, and just six seconds later Perron put it in the net for his third goal of the season. Vegas stole a page from the St. Louis playbook on this one; the Knights were penalized for too many men on the ice.
And the Blues weren’t done in the opening period, because Jaden Schwartz whistled a shot past Lehner from the left circle. Although all three goals came from different angles, they all beat Lehner glove side. It was three goals in 6:02 for a 3-1 lead.
Lehner is a fine goalie, but the Blues may have caught a break getting him Tuesday night instead of Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury has yielded only three goals all season (in three games). Lehner gave up three in little over 10 minutes Tuesday.
Vegas always sends a lot of frozen rubber to the net and outshot the Blues 17-8 in the opening period. They also hit at least one post (Shea Theodore) and hit the crossbar (Pacioretty).
