Blues pull within three points of second wild card in Western Conference with three games remaining; score four times in game's first seven minutes on first four shots to blow past hapless Blackhawks
ST. LOUIS -- It took some time, game No. 79 as a matter of fact, but the St. Louis Blues took care of business against a team they came into a game they were supposed to beat, and did so early and handily.
The Blues faced the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday and put their I-55 division rivals out of their misery early with a four-goal output in a span of 4:55 in the game's first 6:59 of a 5-2 win at Enterprise Center.
Jordan Kyrou paved the way with two goals to extend his point streak to four games; Robert Thomas had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to four games and third straight multipoint game; and Zack Bolduc had his first multipoint game in the NHL with a goal and an assist.
The Blues (42-32-5) became the second team on record (since 2009-10) to score a goal on each of their first four shots of a game since the Vancouver Canucks did against the Edmonton Oilers on May 6, 2021. It's the third-fastest four goals to start a game in franchise history: 6:41 on Feb. 6, 1973 against the Canucks and 6:58 on April 4, 2019 against the Philadelphia Flyers.
"Obviously we had a real good start to that game and got rewarded, broke the game open pretty quickly," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. "Good to see our guys come out with that kind of urgency to start the game."
"That was pretty quick. I didn't know," Bolduc said. "Someone told me after the game it was four goals on four shots. That's pretty quick. Yeah, we had a good start and I think we got a little bit sloppy in the second, but we found our legs back in the third."
The win, coupled with a Vegas Golden Knights 5-1 loss against the Edmonton Oilers, pulled the Blues within three points of Vegas for the second wild card in the Western Conference, and four points behind the Los Angeles Kings, who lead the Golden Knights by one point for third place in the Pacific Division.
The Blues have three games left; Vegas has four and Los Angeles has four, so going into Game No. 80 on Friday against Carolina, the Blues are still alive.
"Yeah, it's a good feeling," Kyrou said. "Obviously you can't control the outcome of what happens to the other teams, but we can control what we do, right? That's all we're focused on right now."
Let's take a look at the key plays:
* Score fast, score often -- The Blackhawks (23-50-5) seemed quite content with playing an open style, up-and-down game.
Bad idea.
Kyrou took advantage right off the hop when he beat Petr Mrazek with a breakaway goal 2:04 into the game for a 1-0 Blues lead.
Joel Hofer, who made 18 saves for the win in his first action against the Blackhawks, quick-upped a puck to Nick Leddy, whose stretch pass was right in stride for Kyrou to break in from the blue line before burying a wrister blocker side.
"It just all happened so fast," Kyrou said. "Just kind of instinct."
Kyrou made it 2-0 41 seconds later off a 2-on-1 with Brandon Saad.
The Blues efficiently moved the puck from the defensive zone with Pavel Buchnevich, who picked up his 400th NHL point with an assist, to Saad, who found Kyrou. Kyrou looked Saad's way before wiring a wrister from the left circle once again on the blocker side.
"I was trying to pass him the whole time and then last second, I decided to shoot," Kyrou said. "... Obviously it feels great. It gives you a good confidence boost the rest of the game."
The Blues didn't stop there.
Torey Krug, who did not play the third period with an undisclosed injury, made it 3-0 when his wrister from the blue line had eyes and got through traffic at 4:37.
The goal chased Mrazek from the game without making a save. On the flip side, Hofer had more assists (one) than Mrazek had saves (zero), which is so uncommon even for getting pulled from the game.
And finally, Bolduc made it 4-0 at 6:59, on some slick passing with Thomas and Brayden Schenn, who had two assists. It was the first shot faced by Arvid Soderblom.
"You try to be ahead of the game, but with these guys, you never know where it's going to go," Bolduc said. "You've always got to put your stick on the ice and be ready. Everyone's in the right place at the right time, so it makes the game so much easier.
"... Playing with 'Tommer' and 'Schenner' makes my game so much easier."
It was pretty much game over from that moment on.
The Blackhawks had little to nothing early, were outshot 9-1 in the period.
“What needs to be said? I don't think anything needs to be said," a disgruntled Chicago forward Jason Dickinson said. "It was an embarrassing first period. One shot, maybe three shot attempts, we were down 4-0. What words need to be said?"
Nothing sir. Absolutely nothing.
* Sloppy second -- The Blues played casual with the puck in the second period, and that's natural, in a sense, protecting a four-goal lead.
There was open ice, there was space to claim. The Blues just weren't as crisp with the puck as they were in the first. Fortunately for them, it didn't matter.
But Philipp Kurashev broke the ice for Chicago to make it 4-1 at 8:40 of the second when he worked a puck to Kevin Korchinski breaking in, the defenseman missed the net, but fortunately for the Blackhawks, Kurashev corralled the puck and tucked it into the open right side after Korchinski's shot caromed off the back boards.
* Tucker rocks Bedard -- Tyler Tucker made his entrance into the game noticeable when he laid a good, hard, clean shoulder check on Chicago budding star Connor Bedard along the d-zone boards that drew the ire of Chicago's Alex Vlasic, who went after Tucker at 18:31 of the second.
"It wasn't the most intense game, I wouldn't say, but he played very hard tonight," Schenn said of Tucker. "He made big hits, finished his checks. Obviously got in a little scrum there. That's a guy that's trying to prove himself and he played extremely well tonight."
* Thomas strikes -- Thomas and Schenn worked it well and Thomas finished off Schenn's one-timer for a 5-1 lead at 10:01 of the third period.
Bolduc made a nice entry pass into the zone, Thomas found Schenn for a one-timer, and doing what's necessary, Thomas drove the net for a rebound and found the loose puck and deposited it into the net.
* Congrats rookie -- We'll give kudos to Blackhawks rookie Taylor Slaggert for scoring his first NHL goal at 16:51 to make the score 5-2.
Slaggert, playing in his 12th game, made a nice move around the right edge and beat Hofer over the shoulder.
But this was about the start for the Blues, who took care of business when they had to and unlike games against San Jose and Columbus, put a team away they were supposed to beat.
"You should never quit until you see eliminated beside your name," Schenn said. "Right now, we don't see that. I think after the Nashville game there (last Thursday, a 6-3 loss), we still fully believe in this locker room that we can at least have a chance. We obviously know we need a lot of help along the way, but hey, these games mean something right now and we'll keep on fighting. As long as we take care of our part, we'll at least put a little pressure on them."
The only downer to the game was Krug, who did not return for the third period with an undisclosed injury. Bannister said postgame there was no update.
