Thomas ties season-high with four points; Kyrou adds three assists, shootout winner; Kessel pots first goal in 37th game; Blues close out road trip with wild 6-5 shootout winner over Ducks
If you like pond hockey, the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. was the place to be.
The St. Louis Blues and Anaheim Ducks were in a taking mood on Sunday night. Each was more than willing to take what the opposition was giving them.
It was a game in which had a little bit of everything, but the one featured attraction was a track meet.
In the end, the Blues prevailed 6-5 in a shootout when Jordan Kyrou scored the lone goal in the skills competition, and Jordan Binnington denied Troy Terry on Anaheim's final shooter.
Robert Thomas led the way with a goal and four assists, tying his season-high for points in a game; he also set a personal season-high for points, surpassing the 77 he has in 2021-22, and joined a trio of others to reach 80 points in a season since 2000. Kyrou also had three assists to give him 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) the past 12 games; Brayden Schenn scored in his fourth goal in four games and had an assist, and Matthew Kessel scored his first NHL goal in his 37th game.
For a change on this trip, the Blues (41-32-5) won the special teams' battle, going 2-for-3 with the man advantage, and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill, although Anaheim (25-48-5) scored one second after a power play had expired.
Let's take a look at the key points in the game, and there were plenty of them:
* Bolduc bursts through -- It didn't take long for the Blues to break the ice when Zack Bolduc tied the NHL mark for fastest goal this season and sixth-fastest goal to start a game in Blues history when he made it 1-0 just 11 seconds into the game.
After the opening draw and the puck going across the blue line into the Blues' zone, Colton Parayko turned and whipped a puck off the glass into the neutral zone springing a 3-on-2 break with Thomas getting the puck. He fed Bolduc with speed along the left side, and the rookie beat Lukas Dostal from the left circle with a wrister, his third NHL goal.
* Ducks hunting -- The Ducks didn't seem to be flustered by the early goal allowed. Anaheim focused on getting bodies to the net and were able to equalize when Nikita Nesterenko was on the doorstep and put home a close-range rebound by Binnington at 2:37 to tie the game 1-1.
Parayko didn't handle the player at the net After Gustav Lindstrom threw a wrister towards a crowded net.
* Binnington to the rescue -- Binnington was called on to keep it a 1-1 game when he lunged out the left pad to stop two Ryan Strome attempts at 11:02 and 11:03.
* One to remember -- It was a matter of time for Matthew Kessel. The rookie defenseman finally removed the monkey on his back and scored his first NHL goal, at 12:36 to make it 2-1.
Schenn did the grunt work when he won a wall battle, pushing the puck to Thomas in the zone, and Thomas found Kessel coming into the zone, and he wired a wrister past Dostal.
* Binnington to the rescue (again) -- The Blues would get their first power play of the game with three seconds left in the period, but prior to it, Binnington was bust making a breakaway save on Strome with 41 seconds left before Strome would go to the box for boarding.
The Blues came out of the opening 20 minutes ahead 2-1 but down on the shot clock 15-10 in a wildly spirited period.
* Weird luck goes against the Blues -- It was a tough tying goal to give up when Frank Vatrano scored the first of two goals at 3:39 to make it a 2-2 game, but the breakdown was glaring if you're the Blues, who found themselves with three skaters (Torey Krug, Kessel and Thomas) all caught below the goal line, leaving Alex Killorn alone to be able to get a puck, take it to the front.
Binnington made the initial save, but Vatrano was there to get a piece of the rebound, and unfortunately in his haste to swipe the puck out of danger while on his back, Binnington swiped it into his net.
* Ding, ding, ding -- It got to a boxing-level kind of moment when Tyler Tucker took the butt end of Ross Johnston's stick for a penalty, but Nathan Walker took exception to Johnson catching his teammate and called him out on it at 13:07.
Johnson didn't appreciate the dig and took a jab at Walker right in front of Binnington, who took exception and half swung and slung Johnston protecting his teammate that had the makings of quite the brouhaha.
Johnston and Binnington each picked up roughing minors, but the Blues came away with the power play.
They would cash in on it to go up 3-2 at 13:36 when Thomas would get a puck from Krug off the wall, spin into the right circle and beat Dostal with a low wrister.
* Buch doubles the lead -- Pavel Buchnevich, who was the player to watch heading into the game, was on the receiving end of a well-timed zone entry, Scott Perunovich getting the puck to Kyrou, who fed Buchnevich in the right circle for a one-timer on the short side for a 4-2 lead at 15:50.
The Blues would be on good shape heading into the third up 4-2 but when Tucker was called for holding the stick at 19:01, it was an important kill to get through.
* Technically-speaking -- The Blues managed to get through the kill technically, but Leo Carlsson, the second pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, benefitted from a broken play and scored at 1:02 to make it a 4-3 game, a play in which Isac Lundestrom found Carlsson open in the slot with Walker in the vicinity, but the forward was offering little resistance.
* Power play strikes again -- The Blues were about to restore their two-goal lead when Kyrou and Brandon Saad headed the other way on a 2-on-1, but Vatrano caught up to Kyrou, who would have likely buried a Saad pass, and interfered with Kyrou at 1:51.
The Blues would get their second man-advantage marker of the game when Schenn scored his fourth goal in four games at 2:40 to make it a 5-3 game, swatting home Kyrou's pass at the right side of the post.
* Is the lead safe -- The Blues have been good at locking down third-period leads, but with playing so many of the younger players, the lead disappeared.
Vatrano made it 5-4 at 8:04 on a backhand from the slot, open from a pass behind the net as the Blues once again had too many skaters at or below the goal line and left the slot vulnerable. This time, it was the fourth line on the ice with Walker, Sammy Blais and Nikita Alexandrov, who appeared lost in coverage.
That line was on the ice again and victimized in the same area when Carlsson tied it 5-5 at 16:09 scoring from the slot.
Neither team had really any prime scoring chances in the overtime, so a skills competition would decide who gets the second point.
* Kyrou, Binnington salvage second point -- Kyrou would put the Blues ahead 1-0 on their first shootout attempt going to the backhand and scoring over the right pad of Dostal after Trevor Zegras opened the shootout by hitting the cross bar.
Binnington would also make saves on Carlsson and Troy Terry after Schenn missed on his chance to end it after the second round.
With the win, the Blues kept their slim playoff hopes alive, keeping the Nashville Predators from clinching.
The Blues now trail the Vegas Golden Knights by five points for the second wild card in the Western Conference but have played two more games. They open their final homestand -- three games -- of the regular season on Wednesday against the Chicago Blackhawks.
