When the St. Louis Blues embarked on this three-game Pacific Division road trip last Monday, gaining 3-4 points would have been satisfactory considering two of the opponents they would be facing are neck-and-neck with them in the chase for the wild card, and the other was leading the NHL in points.
As inconsistent as the Blues have been this season, who would have guessed a perfect trip and 6-for-6 on the point meter?
Well, here they are, after another overtime winner, this time by Pavel Buchnevich, who scored twice and assisted on another, in a 4-3 win at Climate Pledge Arena on Friday.
It wasn't a perfect game for the Blues (25-20-2), who are now a season-high five games over .500, but certain areas of the game needed to be done well in order to gain the two points on Friday.
The win moved the Blues within one point of both the Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings for a wild card spot in the Western Conference, with the reeling Kings coming to St. Louis for a 1 p.m. matinee on Sunday.
Let's take a look at the three keys from a third straight 4-3 score line:
1. The power play came through -- Let's face it, it's been written in this space many times how the power play has been a menace for the Blues, time and time again presented with the opportunity to make a difference in a game.
It was a huge part of this outcome, going 2-for-2 on just three shots, getting goals from Oskar Sundqvist and Robert Thomas.
Since Jan. 11, the Blues are 9-for-23 (39.1 percent), which is second in the NHL behind the Tampa Bay Lightning, who have scored a ridiculous 42.9 percent of the time, and since Dec. 16, the Blues are 14-for-50, good for 28 percent, which is sixth in the league.
Sooner or later it would have to come through, and the Blues seem to be reaping the rewards of getting to the net front and cashing in when they matter lately.
2. Clutch goaltending again -- Let's also face this, the Blues were outplayed, especially at 5-on-5, a department they were outshot at in the game 34-14.
But as we've been saying it in this space time and time again, goaltending has been crucial, and Jordan Binnington delivered the necessary performance.
None of Seattle's three goals were of his doing. One was on a screen by his own teammate [Colton Parayko], another came off an odd-man rush while the Kraken was on the power play, and a third came off a defensive zone turnover by Scott Perunovich.
And when the game was 3-1, Binnington delivered saves on Seattle's final 19 shots, including 14 in the third period.
3. Resiliency -- The Blues came away with three wins in three games on this trip but had to overcome a pair of 3-1 deficits in order to do it.
They started it off with a 3-1 deficit in the second period against the Calgary Flames before scoring late in the period, then scoring twice in the third period, including Brandon Saad's game-winner with 48 seconds left in regulation for a 4-3 win; they then were down 3-1 less than seven minutes into the second period on Friday but got a late power-play goal by Thomas, a tying goal by Pavel Buchnevich early in the third before Buchnevich scored the OT game-winner.
Earlier in the season, this team was getting pushed out of the game early. Now they're staying in the fight and delivering performances, improving to 11-1-2 in one-goal games.
