Forward follows up three-point game Thursday with second three-goal game this season; Blues down Wild for third time this month, pull momentarily within two points of
The St. Louis Blues continue to defy the odds, including those in this publication.
The Blues haven't been given much chance to be in, let alone remain in the Western Conference wild card chase, but they just won't go away.
The Blues used Jordan Kyrou's second hat trick this season, Pavel Buchnevich's three assists, and Brandon Saad's overtime winner in defeating the Minnesota Wild for the third time this month, 5-4, at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.
And in doing so, the Blues (38-30-3) moved eight games over .500 for the first time this season and first time since the end of the 2021-22 regular season. They've won six of seven and for the second time in as many games, pulled within two points of the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild card in the Western Conference, pending the Golden Knights' result later Saturday night at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Blues won a game in which it was expected to a bit lower scoring, more tight checking with the stakes as high as they were for each team coming in.
But they got the job done in Nick Leddy's 1,000th NHL game.
Let's look at the takeaways and key points to the matchup that leaves the Blues two points back and the Wild (34-28-9) four points back, pending Vegas' result:
* Taking advantage of limited odd-man rushes -- The game certainly had a playoff feel to it, and it was tight-checking, not a ton of space. Although the Wild had its moments of extended zone time early.
But when there was an odd-man opportunity, the Blues took it, and Jake Neighbours cashed in for his team-leading 25th of the season (for like an hour), by -- take a 'wild' guess! -- being around the net and pouncing on a loose puck for a 1-0 lead at 10:07 of the first period.
Neighbours led the rush up the left side after a Minnesota offensive zone turnover that left defenseman Jake Middleton caught up ice; Neighbours tried threading a cross-ice pass to Robert Thomas that got deflected away, but Brayden Schenn put the backhand on goal that created a rebound that Neighbours put away.
* Fleury with first big save -- It was shaping up to be a goalie's duel at first, and Marc-Andre Fleury came up with the first key stop when he denied Colton Parayko on the backdoor with 55 seconds left in the first, flashing the glove on the short side after Thomas found the defenseman with a seam pass to the back side. And it was a solid first for the Blues, who outshot the Wild 11-5.
* Wild starts getting opportunistic -- Minnesota evened the game 1-1 when Marcus Johansson finished off a give-and-go in the Blues' zone, after the Blues had a puck in the offensive zone that they lost, the puck gets to the neutral zone, and in a theme that started in the second period, the Blues got caught back-pedaling in, and the Wild exposed them.
Once Neighbours came out to challenge Johansson by sliding, Johansson dished to his right to Brock Faber, got it back into the open slot and fired past Binnington at 4:45.
* Fleury big again -- Fleury thwarted another Grade A scoring chance, this time by Robert Thomas at 7:27 off a 2-on-1 with Neighbours to keep it 1-1.
* Crazy sequence -- The Blues did everything but score, and only they could pass themselves out of a sure goal and turn it into a goal against when Marco Rossi made it 2-1 at 11:44 on a breakaway.
It came after Schenn and Neighbours missed connecting on what would have been an open-net goal, the puck came back to the right side, Schenn gave it up, and somehow, Scott Perunovich and Matthew Kessel didn't see Rossi behind them and be beat Binnington squeezing a shot through the five-hole.
* That's what you're looking for from Kyrou -- The goal Kyrou scored to tie it 2-2 at 12:49 is the kind of play you've been looking for from Kyrou on a consistent basis. Imagine how much better he'd be if the Blues get it?
After initially losing a puck, instead of giving up on the play, he hounds and forechecks Zach Bogosian into a turnover, then goes to the net and bangs home a loose puck to tie the game 2-2. It's a not always about the flash-and-dash plays. That's what he's capable of.
* Another back-pedaling play typifies second period -- But again, the Blues were in retreat mode, which doesn't mode well when they don't have the puck.
Rossi's second at 15:11 made it 3-2 Minnesota, a goal that the Wild carved the Blues into the zone, Brandon Saad was late on the back-check and a puck from right in front off a Mats Zuccarello pass went off Rossi's skate and in to give the Wild a 3-2 lead after two.
* Kyrou kept heating up -- Trying to chase games down in the third period usually means you need to jump on it fairly quickly before teams get into that lockdown mode.
Kyrou made sure the Wild couldn't get there when he tied it 3-3 at 3:50 with Leddy moving the puck up the ice quick to Buchnevich, who left it off to Kyrou with Saad driving the middle of the ice to provide some type of a screen.
Kyrou, recognizing that, also just shot a puck from distance past Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm past Fleury, who had no idea the puck was coming.
* Throw those hats -- The hats started to come down in enemy territory when Kyrou tied Neighbours for the team lead with his 25th, giving the Blues a 4-3 lead at 10:01 taking a feed from Saad, chipping the puck at center ice past Zuccarello with open ice, then darting into the zone before letting go that pinpoint wrister from the inner part of the right circle.
Confident players don't look to pass there, and Kyrou was focused on shooting the puck, which he did.
* The Wild counter-punch -- Minnesota wasn't about to let the Blues take the two points, and the Wild tied it 4-4 when Brock Faber got in on a defensive pinch and poked a loose puck past Jordan Binnington at 14:51 that developed off a Wild face-off win, puck to the right point, shot, rebound, and Neighbours was a little tardy getting to Faber in the slot area.
With all the playoff feels, Neighbours and Faber each were involved in a tussle at the end of regulation that started when Kirill Kaprizov, poking away at a puck Binnington had covered at the end, put his mitt in Leddy's face as the Blues defenseman was trying to move the Wild forward away from his goalie and everybody began to skirmish.
So Neighbours and Faber, who the Wild could have used in the OT, each sat for two minutes.
* Binnington's turn -- Binnington was working his way into the game. He didn't have a ton of work in the early stages, but his save on Rossi bidding for a hat trick at 1:29 of overtime saved the Blues at the time, since Rossi skirted in alone after Schenn turned the puck over.
* Saad ends it -- Saad's overtime winner had one key element that led to his goal, which was slick in itself.
The Wild put a puck in on Binnington with Matt Boldy charging in. Instead of making Binnington freeze the puck for an offensive zone draw, Boldy skated by, allowing Binnington to play the puck.
It turned out to be just what the Blues needed when they moved it up the ice, Kasperi Kapanen fed Saad down the middle, he cut to his left and slid it home past Fleury, who broke his stick on the post, for the game-winner.
The win for the Blues sets up a huge showdown with the Golden Knights on Monday at Enterprise Center.
