PHILADELPHIA — It was a night for sweet nostalgia. Brayden Schenn returning to the place where he established himself in the NHL.
Craig Berube was back in his adopted hometown, where both his playing and coach careers began.
And most of all, beleaguered Jordan Binnington was back in goal, playing at Wells Fargo Center for the first time since Jan. 7, 2019 — the night he made his magical first NHL start with a shutout victory.
These things don’t always have happy endings. But they did Tuesday. With Binnington getting his first victory since Jan. 9, the Blues topped the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1, thus completing their four-game road trip with a 3-0-1 record.
Binnington had 25 saves in that game three years ago — a 3-0 Blues win. He didn’t get the shutout this time, but once again, he had 25 saves.
They came within 8.7 seconds in Montreal of going 4-0-0. But seven points in four games is more than acceptable. At 30-14-6, the Blues became the 10th NHL team to reach 30 victories.
Philadelphia (15-26-10) continues to struggle under interim coach Mike Yeo, the former Blues head coach; the Flyers have won only two of their past 21 games.
So the Blues avoided the recent trap of losing to a league bottom-feeder, such as New Jersey on Feb. 10 coming out of the All-Star break or Montreal last Thursday on the second game of this trip.
Tuesday’s contest also was the last of six games that were either postponed or rescheduled to give the team a fairly routine February once NHL participation in the Winter Olympics was scrubbed. We now return to our regularly scheduled schedule.
The first moment of truth for Binnington came after a Jordan Kyrou turnover in the St. Louis zone. Down came Scott Laughton on a breakaway; he tried to go backhand through the 5-hole, but Binnington closed his pads in time to make the save.
That sequence came just 5 minutes, 41 seconds into what was then a scoreless game. It stayed scoreless until the middle part of the period. The Flyers were dominating possession time at that point in the game, until Kyrou came racing down right wing and rang a shot off the post.
A scramble ensued for the loose puck in front of the Philadelphia net. Ivan Barbashev made a one-hand swipe at the puck as he was falling to the net, but it was Schenn who put the rebound in behind Flyers goalie Martin Jones.
Jones, the longtime San Jose Shark, was starting for the second day in a row, having played in Monday’s 4-3 overtime loss to Carolina.
Officials originally ruled it no goal, but it seemed pretty clear that it was a successful roof shot. A review showed it was indeed a goal — a Gritty goal, if you will — and the Blues led 1-0 with 8:10 remaining in the first. It was the 15th goal of the season for Schenn and his 11th in the new year.
With the primary assist on the play, Barbashev snapped his 10-game point drought.
Less than two minutes into the second period, the Blues hit another post. This time it was Vladimir Tarasenko, who returned to the lineup after missing Saturday’s game in Toronto with an unspecified injury.
Another moment of truth for Binnington came with 11½ minutes left in the second, when Claude Giroux led the Flyers on a 2-on-1 break. Binnington came out to cut down the angle, but Giroux — the Flyers’ captain — shot wide.
The Blues had some extended stretches where they controlled possession time and had good chances. But as the period progressed, they fell into the all-too-common habit of over-passing and eventually losing possession of the puck.
The first penalty of the game came with just 6:28 left in the second period, when Travis Sanheim was called for hooking David Perron behind the Philadelphia net. The Blues had lots of possession time but only one shot on the power play, content to pass the puck around the perimeter.
With just 1:30 left in the second, Philadelphia got its first crack at the power play when Nikko Mikkola — who leads the Blues with 38 penalty minutes this season — was called for holding Laughton. Unlike the Blues, the Flyers got plenty of inside play but couldn’t finish off what looked like a couple of prime opportunities before the period ended.
Philly took 30 seconds of power play into the third period, but the Blues’ sixth-ranked penalty kill unit killed it off. But overall the Blues came out flat and on their heels and Philadelphia nearly tied things on a couple of occasions.
First, Oskar Lindblom, staring at some open net, shot high trying to finish off an odd-man rush. Then defenseman Justin Braun hit the post. The Blues countered with a three-on-one rush, but instead of shooting, Robert Thomas passed to a trailing Tarasenko, who fanned on the shot.
All that pressure paid off on Lindblom’s eight goal of the season with 11:51 left. But the game stayed tied at 1-1 for only 42 seconds. Thomas, working behind the net sent a pass into the near slot for Tarasenko who fell forward — and fell down — in firing the puck past Jones for a 2-1 lead.
The goal was Tarasenko’s 19th of the season, breaking a three-way tie for the team scoring lead with Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich.
With 5:02 remaining, Torey Krug tied Mikkola for the penalty lead at 38 minutes, when he was called for tripping. So the Blues’ PK was put to the test again. The Flyers were kept off the board with little drama as the penalty ended.
Barbashev took the edge off what was shaping up as a tense finish with an empty-net goal with 52.8 seconds left. It was Barbashev’s 16th goal of the season but his first since Jan. 17.
And just to make double sure, Brandon Saad scored another empty-netter with 6.4 seconds left.
