ST. LOUIS — Monday’s tussle between Nashville and St. Louis was about as close to playoff hockey as you’re going to get. Tight defense. Intense checks. Hard hits. And two teams that really don’t like it each other.
Fittingly then, it went into overtime before the 13th sellout crowd of the season at Enterprise Center.
After losing a tough one in OT on Sunday afternoon, Brayden Schenn sent the crowd home happy banging in a rebound of a Jordan Kyrou to give the Blues a 1-0 victory. The shot bounced off the blocker of Nashville goalie Juuse Saros and over to Schenn on the backside.
Schenn had an open net and made no mistake — his seventh goal of the season gave the Blues the win at the 2:23 mark of overtime.
For Jordan Binnington, who stopped all 25 shots he faced, it ended a seven-game winless streak (0-6-1) and gave him his 100th career win.
Winnipeg and Dallas have gotten some separation at the top of the Central Division, but only five points separate Colorado, Minnesota, Nashville and St. Louis between third and sixth place. So this was an important game, by December standards, in terms of jockeying for position. Two points that could come in handy later in the season.
Special teams were key in the opening two periods, with seven penalties called between the two squads — four against the Blues and three against Nashville. But all seven were killed off in a game that was scoreless entering the third period — as such the first scoreless game for the Blues after two.
With 3:15 to play in regulation, Binnington was shaken up when Nashville’s Cole Smith hopped by Binnington as Mattias Ekholm shot and appeared to catch the goalie’s left hand — or glove hand. Binnington was shaken up, head athletic trainer Ray Barile came out on the ice immediately, but after a brief pause he played on.
Less than a minute into overtime, Binnington showed that his glove hand was OK, grabbing a shot by Matt Duchene from the slot.
Just warming up
For the second game in a row, the Blues and their opponents played a scoreless first period. And on Monday, that was with both teams having a pair of power play chances.
Even after going three for three on the penalty kill Sunday against Colorado, the Blues still entered the night dead last in the NHL on the PK — at 65.6%. So in killing off those two Nashville power plays on Monday, the Blues were five for five on PKs over four periods. Believe it or not.
And the Blues actually had their best scoring chances while shorthanded Monday, with Ivan Barbashev and Brandon Saad working effectively up top. All told, the Blues had three shots on goal while shorthanded and none while on the power play. Go figure.
Line ’em up
With the return of Alexey Toropchenko from Springfield, Coach Craig Berube shuffled his top three lines in search of more punch for the league’s 23rd-ranked offense (2.96 goals per game).
Saad returned to the Ryan O’Reilly line with Josh Leivo, the 12th time that group has been together this season.
Schenn-Barbashev-Vladimir Tarasenko opened on a line together for only the second time this season. They combined for a goal and an assist in a 5-4 overtime win over Florida on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.
And Torpchenko, who had played fourth line almost exclusively earlier this season, added some size and physicality to a line centered by Robert Thomas and with Jordan Kyrou on right wing. It was the first time for this trio together.
Doubling up
Binnington was in goal for both ends of a back-to-back for only the third time in his career. On Oct. 26 and Oct. 27 of 2019, Binnington lost at Boston 3-0 on the 26th (one of the goals was an empty-netter), and won at Detroit 5-4 in overtime on the 27th.
The following season, Binnington lost at Minnesota 2-0 on March 25, 2021, a game in which the Wild had only 11 shots on goal. The next day, he lost at home to Anaheim 4-1, with two Ducks goals coming on empty-netters.
He’s the sixth goalie in the league this season to start on successive days, joining Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers, Alexandar Georgiev of Colorado, Jacob Markstrom of Calgary, Erik Kallgren of Toronto and Ville Husso of Detroit.
