ST. LOUIS — The New York Islanders came out trying to play rough.
Zdeno Chara knocked Jordan Kyrou into next week, slamming the young Blue into the boards and into the locker room for evaluation.
Ross Johnston got in Alexei Torophchenko’s grill, cross-checking him in the chops.
The Blues responded with goals. A net full of goals. They had a half-dozen against one of the NHL’s top defensive teams ... before the second period ended. Then they put it on cruise control in the third period for a resounding 6-1 win at Enterprise Center.
Nick Leddy, Vladimir Tarasenko, Justin Faulk (twice), Ivan Barbashev and Robert Thomas all made the roll call.
What shaped up as a tough, tough game following Friday night’s emotional overtime win over Minnesota, turned into a rare laugher for the red hot Blues.
Playing before the 25th sellout of the season, the Blues completed a four-game homestand by overwhelming the Islanders. Starting with a 2-1 win over the Blues in early March, the New Yorkers were 13-5-1 – the second-best record in the NHL over that stretch.
But you never would have known it by what transpired Saturday as the Blues stretched their season-long point streak to eight games (7-0-1). They are 42-20-10 for 94 points, moving two points ahead of idle Minnesota into second place in the Central Division. The Wild have played two fewer games than St. Louis.
And with Nashville’s 4-1 loss earlier Saturday to Florida, the Blues are now eight points ahead of the fourth-place Predators.
A lot of things are going right for the Blues lately. When it comes to sweeping both ends of a back-to-back, the ninth time was the charm. Saturday’s triumph gave the Blues wins on successive days for the first time this season – over nine sets of back-to-backs.
The Blues welcomed Kyrou back in the lineup after missing four of the past six games due to illness. Jordan Binnington got the start in goal for only the second time in nine games. He posted his first win since Feb. 27 in Chicago.
They haven’t done very well against the Eastern Conference this season; Saturday’s win pushed them over .500 against the East at 13-12-4. They have just three games remaining against the East – at Boston and Buffalo this coming week, and then at home against Boston on April 19.
Three is also the number when it comes to home games because the Blues have just three left at Enterprise – April 16 against Minnesota, the aforementioned Boston game, and the regular-season finale April 29 against Vegas.
The Islanders didn’t play nice in the opening period. Just five minutes into the game, 6-foot-9 Chara slammed Kyrou into the boards. Kyrou’s head smacked into the wall after the contact, and it took a while for him to get up. He headed into the tunnel, most likely to get checked out for a concussion, while Chara headed to the penalty box for interference.
That didn’t sit well with David Perron, who picked up an interference penalty of his own after knocking Chara down along the boards four minutes later.
Next, as the period was winding down, Ross Johnston slammed his stick into Toropchenko’s face and drew a cross-checking penalty.
Nothing came of any of the penalties in terms of power play goals. But the Blues did manage to put up two goals on one of the league’s stingiest defenses before the period was out. First it was Leddy, from the edge of the left circle, giving the Blues a 1-0 lead with 5:39 left in the opening period.
Thomas – who else? – got the primary assist, stretching his career-long point streak to nine games. As for Leddy it was his second goal as a member of the Blues. In 11 games since he came to St. Louis at the trade deadline from Detroit, he has two goals and five assists. Those are good numbers for someone known as a defensive defensemen; he now has a five-game point streak.
Before the opening period was over, Tarasenko took over the team scoring lead with his 26th of the season. After Colton Parayko sent a comet from the point at Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov, Tarasenko stood firm net front and muscled in the rebound.
So it was 2-0 after the first period -- and those goals were mere appetizers. The floodgates opened in the second period with four goals.
Faulk got the second-period party going, scoring his 12th and 13th goals of the season just 96 seconds apart. He’s the first Blues defenseman to score twice in the same game this season, and coupled with Leddy’s goal the Blues got three goals by D-men in a game for the first time this season.
Thirteen goals is a pretty big number for a defenseman. In the case of Blues’ D-men, there have been more scored in a season only seven times since the 1999-2000 season.
After sitting out the remainder of the first period, Kyrou returned for the second. He got an assist on the second Faulk goal, and then had a breakaway late in the period. Kyrou’s shot got behind Varlamov but hugged the goal line. Until that is, Barbashev swooped in to swat it into the net for his 23rd career goal.
So it was 5-0 with 3:03 left in the second. With 1:19 left in the period, Grant Hutton got the Islanders on the board with his first NHL goal – on a shot from distance that may have deflected off Parayko’s stick.
Just so the Islanders wouldn’t get any ideas, Thomas scored his 18th goal of the season just 39 seconds after the Hutton goal off a feed from Tarasenko. With 10 games left in the season, Thomas appears destined for the 20-goal club.
And right now, the Blues seemed destined for bigger and better things.
