When Brandon Saad was stopped by Jacob Markstrom on a breakaway just 1:17 into the game on Tuesday against the Calgary Flames, the St. Louis Blues were hoping it wasn't a sign of things to come for the forward.
Well, not only did Saad make that Grade A opportunity, one of two first-period breakaways he had, a distant memory, he catapulted it out of commission. The end of the game is all that matters, and Saad made the most of it.
He could have conceivably scored 4-5 goals in the game but he had to settle for two. He probably doesn't care because the second one was the difference between overtime and splitting points, fighting with the Flames for the important second one to snatching two points solo for the Blues when he scored with 48 seconds remaining of a come-from-behind 4-3 win over the Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Saad had his handprints on the game, and it was a game in which the Blues (23-20-2) got some much-needed secondary scoring.
Saad had another breakaway, and he was 0-for-3(!) on those; he had a shorthanded chance in the second period but his tying goal in the first settled the Blues down before he burst through three-quarters of the ice and used Flames defenseman Jordan Oesterle as a screen before whipping a shot through the legs, perhaps Markstrom didn't initially see the shot glove side off the post and in.
Saad finished with a team-high five shots on goal, was a plus-1 with one blocked shot in 16:02 and is quietly again putting another season towards scoring 20 goals.
Nick Leddy was exceptional too and was a close second to player of the game, as was Colton Parayko and Marco Scandella, but Saad had his handprints all over this game offensively, and the Blues needed it.
