Well, a win is a win, and the St. Louis Blues will take them any way they can get them at this point.
They picked up a 5-4 shootout win against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Monday to snap a three-game road losing streak while winning their third in four games.
The Blues (23-21-4) appeared well on their way to winning a solid road game against a struggling Golden Knights team (29-14-4) that had lost three straight and five of six. But after playing such a strong 5-on-5 game in the third period clogging the middle of the ice and blocking a ton of shots and funneled pucks towards the net, the Blues wilted when Vegas pulled Adin Hill for a sixth attacker and the Golden Knights scored twice in the final 3:10 to secure a point.
Vegas nearly won it twice in overtime, but Jack Eichel (still don’t know how) missed an open tap in at 1:05, and Mark Stone, who’s been notorious for producing against the Blues, fired wide of the net on a breakaway with 27 seconds remaining.
And thus, the Blues won the skills competition, aka the shootout, on goals by Brayden Schenn and Jake Neighbours.
And Jordan Binnington, who made 28 saves, denied Pavel Dorofeyev, who tied the game 4-4 with 28.9 seconds remaining, to seal the win and for the moment, pull within a point of the second wild card in the Western Conference:
Let’s look at the Three Takeaways:
* Scoring in the final minute twice – Goals against inside the final minute of a period can be brutal, depending on a score.
But when you get one, or in this case for the Blues, two, it’s supposed to be a big boost.
It would have been a bit of an injustice that the Blues didn’t lead after one period when they played arguably their best period, but Nathan Walker put them ahead 2-1 with 16.4 ticks left driving the net and potting the rebound of Philip Broberg’s shot, the Blues’ 16th of the period:
And then the Blues converted off the power play late in the second period when Cam Fowler made it 4-2 with 29.7 left in the period, using Brandon Saad, who set a great screen on Hill:
* Defending well 5-on-5 in game, particularly the third period – Despite giving up the lead late in the game, those two goals did come defending at 5-on-6, which wasn’t good considering the Blues lost two draws and spent too much time laying back while Vegas moved the puck on a string.
But the 5-on-5 play was textbook.
The Blues did defend the zone well, clogging up the middle of the ice, blocking shots and filtered pucks to the net and not getting hemmed in while Vegas was shortening its bench with its best players.
Can’t imagine coach Jim Montgomery being terribly upset by the way they played 5-on-5 in this game as a whole, but especially in that third period, because the effort was there, players were converging on pucks and they were starting and stopping in proper areas to not allow themselves to get hemmed in or being one-and-done in the offensive zone.
The Neighbours goal at 6:37 of the second period was a perfect example of starting and stopping, or in Thomas’ case, cutting the puck back off the wall after possession to give Neighbours an open look from the left circle:
At 5-on-6, that’s a different story.
* Playing the first period with a purpose after ugly one Saturday – The Blues outshot Vegas 16-13 and played with much more of a purpose, a stark contrast to how poor they looked against Utah Hockey Club when they trailed 3-1 and outshot 17-6 and Robert Thomas’ line with Pavel Buchnevich and Jake Neighbours being benched for the final half of that period.
They opened the game being aggressive, putting the first five shots on Adin Hill and had a 7-2 edge just 7:26 in.
They closed the period with a 9-1 advantage and did so with sustained O-zone time, led by the Schenn, Dylan Holloway, Jordan Kyrou line.
Schenn opened the scoring in the game with this bullet off a clean transition out of the zone by Kyrou, who found Holloway, who drove the middle of the ice after dishing a backhand to Schenn and he rocketed one top shelf using former Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo as a bit of a screen:
Hear what Montgomery and players had to say following the win:
“When we play the right way, and our habits and details are really good, and we combine that with really good effort and execution, we can play with elite teams in the league.”
Jake Neighbours, Brayden Schenn and Jim Montgomery after Monday’s shootout win in Vegas. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/KRGFBGKnI2
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) January 21, 2025
