ST. LOUIS -- Left for dead after allowing a shorthanded goal against the lowly Chicago Blackhawks, the St. Louis Blues have been down this road before against their Central Division rivals up I-55.
And in instances from the past, the Blues found a way.
They rallied from a three-goal third-period deficit to stun the Blackhawks, 7-5, at Enterprise Center on Saturday in ways that have happened before.
Remember 'Roar Bacon?' Remember the game in this building when the Blues (17-15-1) were down 3-0 in the third period back in 2019 and stormed back to a 4-3 win?
Well, this time, they were down 5-2 after allowing a Nick Foligno shorthanded goal with 14:44 remaining but scored five times in 11:06 to shock the Blackhawks (10-22-1) once again despite Connor Bedard's 'Michigan'-style goal in the first period.
Let's look at the three keys as to how the Blues were able to pull this one out of the fire:
1. Third period 22-2 shot onslaught -- There was nowhere to go but up for the Blues, who trailed 4-2 with 20 minutes to go but there was always a belief they could and would come back.
And despite allowing what could have been a crushing blow when Foligno beat Jordan Kyrou around the left edge and made it 5-2, the Blues would tilt the ice figuratively and throw everything but the kitchen sink at Arvid Soderblom and the Blackhawks, outshooting them 22-2 and scoring five times in a 10-shot span, including three consecutive shots on the first three goals to tie it.
"Our group always believed," forward Brandon Saad said. "We talked at intermission that we were going to come back and win and thankfully, we did."
Added interim coach Drew Bannister, "We could pack it in easily. They showed a lot of character coming back, there's no doubt about that. I believe in this team. I know that that group believes in themselves. I think tonight kind of solidifies that. For us, we can't look at the standings and who we're playing. For us, we have to win hockey games and it doesn't matter who we play. Every night we come, we have to be able to win."
2. Second power-play unit sparks rally -- When Justin Faulk, Jake Neighbours, Kevin Hayes, Brandon Saad and Scott Perunovich stepped over the boards and on the ice with the man advantage, the Blues had something going.
That unit sparked the rally with goals by Saad to make it 5-3 and Neighbours that made it 5-4.
That unit played direct, it played with a purpose and it made it a purpose to put pucks at the net.
"It's usually what our plan is," Faulk said. "We usually try to get it down there, create some momentum. Sometimes it's 30 seconds left in the power play so we just try to get some shots, get some chances and see if we can put them on their heels a little bit. At a minimum, get the other group going and in the o-zone a bit. Nothing special there with our group right now."
The Blues finished with nine power-play shots, going 2-for-4.
"I don't want to say that our first group wasn't effective," Bannister said. 'I think they had some really good looks. But I thought 'Haysie' had great patience with the puck on the half-wall and made some real good plays. The tip that 'Saader' had at the side of the net, that's a highly-skilled play. That's a good look. But from there, our guys grabbed the momentum. They felt it swing themselves and they just kept going north with pucks. We played behind them, and we forced those guys to play 'D.'"
3. Team effort kicked in after being down three -- The first two periods just didn't look like the Blues were putting forth maximum effort.
OK, the Bedard goal can shock anyone, but all it did was tie the game up. However, the Blues didn't respond accordingly on the next shift and fell behind 23 seconds later on an Anthony Beauvillier goal.
They missed the drop of the puck when the second period started and were down two, very lackluster in their coverage on Foligno's power-play goal and just never got into the plays offensively with the effort needed to push back.
But in the third period when the alarm kicked in, that's when the effort level by all on the ice rose another notch and the results kicked in.
"Just scratch and claw, find a way," Faulk said. "Obviously it's not a good feeling. We weren't too pleased with it, with ourselves, but we were able to get on the power play and the power play came up when we needed it too. That's what you want, just give us life and momentum and go from there. It's a hard thing to do, but you have to stick with it and keep them on their heels if you get a chance and our group did a good job of that."
