ST. LOUIS — In a stunning reversal of fortune in the final minute of the game, the Blues scored twice, first on a six-on-four situation, then on a conventional power play, as they somehow pulled out a 2-1 win over Dallas before a sellout crowd of 18,096 at Enterprise Center.
Just when it looked like the Blues run of 11 games without a regulation loss at home was going to come to an end, first Ryan O’Reilly and then Jordan Kyrou scored to instead give the team its 12th comeback win of the season. The 12-game home point streak ties for the third longest in franchise history.
The Blues’ fortunes changed with 1:59 to play when Jani Hakanpaa was called for hooking O’Reilly just as Jordan Binnington went to the bench for a sixth attacker. Blues coach Craig Berube decided to keep Binnington go on the bench and go with a six-on-four situation.
Dallas had one clearance attempt that went well wide and with 46.3 seconds to play, the Blues tied it. Torey Krug shot wide from the slot, the puck came straight back and while Brayden Schenn couldn’t get a stick on it, O’Reilly could and tied the game.
Almost unnoticed was that the goal was scored on a delayed penalty, after Miro Heiskanen slashed Jordan Kyrou. That kept the Blues on the power play, and with 28.1 seconds to play, Kyrou took a shot from a bad angle that hit Hakanpaa and caromed into the net for the winner.
Binnington stopped 24 of 25 shots he faced to keep the Blues in position to pull the game out.
In 18.2 seconds, the Blues went from losers to winners.
It almost was the Blues’ first regulation loss at home since Nov. 16, when they lost to Arizona 3-2 and looked like it was headed that way.
The Blues power play, which came into the game ranked third in the league at 29.6 percent, went 0 for 3, with only two shots on goal. (The Blues had more shots short-handed, three, in two less minutes.) They had outscored opponents by 22 goals in the second period, was outscored by one.
There was no scoring in the first period.
Jani hit off the skate of teammate Joe Pavelski but came right back to him. On his second effort, Robertson put his shot in off of Binnington with 10:47 to go in the period.
After killing a Dallas power play to start the third period, the Blues cranked up the pressure, with several high quality scoring chances, none of which they could finish. The Blues were able to kill a tripping penalty on David Perron with 5:01 to play but it cost them valuable catchup time.
