The fun has begun for the Blues. A stretch of 19 games over the regular-season’s final 25 games against the top three teams in the West Division: Vegas, Colorado and Minnesota.
That’s some closing stretch. Monday, however, was no fun with the Blues dropping a 5-1 contest to the division-leading Golden Knights. It was a not-so-friendly reminder to the Blues that this won’t be easy, and that Vegas certainly looks like the team to beat in the West Division.
Since that brutal first period last Wednesday that led to a disheartening 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, the Blues showed some life with a pair of wins over the weekend in San Jose. So much for that. This was a step back, particularly defensively. The Blues are 16-11-5 this season, even though they seemingly caught Vegas (22-7-1) at a good time.
The Knights were coming off a road-to-home set of back-to-back games and without leading goal-scorer Max Pacioretty. Since coming to Vegas, Pacioretty has seven goals and four assists in seven games.
And the Blues were bolstered by the return of Zach Sanford after a false positive left him in COVID-19 isolation for two days in San Jose. As well as the somewhat surprising return of Robert Thomas after missing 19 games with a broken thumb.
Coach Craig Berube said earlier on the trip that Thomas might return by the end of the journey. The general assumption was that it might be Thursday in Minnesota — the last day of the trip. But it turned out to be Monday, with him centering a third line flanked by Sanford and Mike Hoffman.
None of this mattered after Vegas blew open a close game with four third-period goals.
Things looked oh-so promising after two periods. Vince Dunn said Saturday that he’s been getting a lot of good scoring opportunities. He’s starting to cash in on them.
His fifth goal of the season, tying Justin Faulk for the team lead by a defenseman, tied the game at 1-1 with 6:42 left in the second period. It culminated an extended period of offensive zone time by the Jaden Schwartz-Brayden Schenn-Vladimir Tarasenko line.
Tarasenko tried a wraparound from behind the net, with the rebound caroming out to the left circle. Dunn swooped in from the blue line and with the aid of a net-front screen by Schenn, whistled a roof shot to the far corner and in.
It marked the first time the Blues had scored a defensive goal in back-to-back games since Jan. 31 (Anaheim) and Feb. 2 (Arizona). This time, both the goals came courtesy of Dunn, who also tied Saturday’s game at 1-1 before the Blues went on to a 5-2 win over San Jose.
It was the first time in his four NHL seasons that Dunn has scored in successive games.
So another tight finish was in the making, but the game didn’t stay tied for long in the third period. Mark Stone, who has been a Blues menace in more ways than one this season, gave Vegas a 2-1 lead just 80 seconds into the final period on a combination of hustle and luck. He would add a second goal to close out the scoring.
With Schwartz falling to the ice and Schenn lunging for the puck, Stone reached out in the slot and sent the puck in the general direction of the net. It struck Dunn’s skate and deflected into the net.
Just three minutes later, the Blues had one of their best chances of the game on a two-on-one break involving Schwartz and Tarasenko. Schwartz made a beautiful behind-the-back pass to Tarasenko but Robin Lehner made the save.
From there, it was all Vegas. The Golden Knights scored four third-period goals the last time they played the Blues on March 13 (in St. Louis.) They did the same Monday.
On a sequence in which the Blues had trouble clearing the puck, Keegan Kolesar got behind Blues defensemen Jake Walman and Faulk for an easy tap-in goal — his first in the NHL. That came with 8:41 to play. Then came a power-play goal by William Karlsson after David Perron went off for slashing.
For the 21st time in 32 games this season, the opposing team scored first against the Blues. That’s what you call a trend. Jonathan Marchessault’s ninth goal of the season came 8:41 seconds into the game — it happened quickly off a faceoff.
It was an innocent-looking shot; as if Marchessault was just sending something to the net, which the Golden Knights like to do. It seemed to surprise Jordan Binnington, who had a lot of people in front of him, beating him five-hole. It also seemed to invigorate the Knights, who dominated the possession time for most of the period and outshot the Blues 14-6.
The Blues got an early power play when Marchessault was whistled for high-sticking Torey Krug just 33 seconds in, but St. Louis couldn’t get anything going against Vegas’ sixth-ranked penalty kill (84%).
All told, Vegas had a whopping 29 shot attempts in the first period and had a lot of good looks, many of which either missed the net or were blocked. One of those misses, by Alex Tuch at the 7:49 mark, bounced off the crossbar.
So all things considered, the Blues were fortunate to be down only a goal after a shaky first period.
Although they still had occasional difficulties exiting their own zone, the Blues settled down in a more evenly played second period.
But Vegas took control down the stretch.
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