2021 first-round pick Bolduc, Saad also score, Binnington adds pair of assists; Blues benefit from two overturned Flames goals
ST. LOUIS -- If it were earlier in the season or perhaps against an opponent that wasn't slumping, this might have been one of those games the St. Louis Blues didn't come away with two points.
But the Blues willed themselves, despite some crazy moments in the third period in which they definitely benefited from a no-goal call, then were able to win a challenge due to off-side and were able to find a way between those plays to score themselves.
In the end, it was a 5-3 win against the slumping Calgary Flames Thursday at Enterprise Center that pushed the Blues (39-30-4) to their seventh win the past nine games (7-1-1) but with just nine games remaining, they failed to gain any ground on the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild card in the Western Conference, trailing by six points.
Vegas actually passed the Los Angeles Kings into third place in the Pacific Division and for the time being, the Kings slipped into the second wild card and the Blues trail them by five points after L.A.'s 4-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, so the Blues actually gained a point on the wild card.
"It's tough to play catch-up this time of year, but at the same time for us is control (what we can control) and taking it one day at a time, one game at a time," said forward Brandon Saad, who scored his sixth game-winner of the season in the third period. "We'll see how it plays out."
Let's look at the key plays and get into the takeaways from a rather wild game in which the Blues swept the season-series against the Flames (33-34-5), who have lost five in a row and have been outscored 21-9.
* Bolduc gets Blues going -- The game didn't have too much flow to it early. Neither team had much bite, but once the Blues broke the ice, it was Zack Bolduc doing it.
His second NHL goal at 13:02 of the first period made it 1-0 on a beautifully crafted goal that started with goalie Jordan Binnington bypassing a defenseman to lay a puck off to. He recognized three Flames forwards were pinching in deep, split two of them and found Bolduc for a transition play. Bolduc found Alexey Toropchenko with speed along the right side, and instead of doing one of his drives around the edge and taking it with power to the net, Toropchenko pulled up the brakes, slotted Bolduc cutting to the middle of the ice and the 2021 first-round pick slid a backhand through Flames goalie Dustin Wolf.
"You can see his confidence is coming," Neighbours said of Bolduc. "He's starting to get more comfortable in the room and obviously at the speed of play the game's played at here. He looks good. He makes good plays, he's a strong skater. He's obviously got a great shot and he's a ball of energy too. He's always got a smile on his face and bringing energy to the rink. He's only going to become more comfortable. I remember it wasn't too long ago I was in his same shoes and somewhat I'm still trying to figure it out. It's a learning process; he's doing a great job of it.
"He can shoot. His release, how hard it is, usually pretty accurate. It's just about him getting spaces where he can get it off where guys can find him and he can be a shooter. You can tell tonight he was starting to find that a little bit more, get himself into areas where he can get the puck and get it on net. I thought he was good."
* Flames have an answer -- Those immediate shifts following a goal are ones coaches want their teams to clamp down on.
It was somewhat problematic for the Blues in this game, and it happened when Andrei Kuzmenko scored the first of his two goals that tied the game 1-1.
It was not a strong play by defenseman Justin Faulk, who had himself a tough game when he was stripped from behind curling around the right side of his net and Kuzmenko scored a beautiful shot from in tight, roofing a puck over Binnington at 13:48, or 46 seconds after Bolduc's goal.
* Flames take advantage of the net front -- The Blues just didn't seem sharp with the puck in the game, and when Brayden Schenn high-sticked Rasmus Andersson along the Flames bench, it put Calgary on the power play and the Flames took advantage.
Jonathan Huberdeau tipped home a MacKenzie Weegar point shot past Binnington to give the Flames a 2-1 lead at 18:37 of the first.
The Flames had two forwards in front of Binnington, and Faulk, the lone d-man down low, was on the wrong end of boxing out anyone and gave either Huberdeau or Kuzmenko the chance to redirect the puck coming at the net.
* Saad had chance to salvage opening period -- Saad had multiple scoring chances in this game, including a breakaway in the waning seconds of the first but shoveled a backhand just off the tip of Wolf's glove and high, so the Blues trailed a rather inconsistent period 2-1, and they usually haven't been good this season (7-19-1 coming into the game) when trailing after one.
* Enter Nathan Walker -- Nathan Walker isn't asked to go out and dominate a game, but the forward is asked to provide energy.
At 5-foot-9, 187 pounds, he can pack quite a wallop when confronted, and when he fought Flames defenseman Joel Hanley at 3:19 of the second, winning the bout quite handily, it was a momentum-shifting sequence.
"It gets the building going and it's important that you follow that up with a good shift and keep the momentum, keep the crowd into it," Neighbours said. "It's a great job by him getting us going. We were a little stale, a little flat. He brought some energy into the building and into our team."
* Blues used fight as momentum -- It's exactly what Neighbours said had to happen, and the he took full advantage of it when Neighbours potted his team-leading 26th of the season on the eve of his 22nd birthday to tie it 2-2 at 3:27, or eight seconds after Walker's fight.
Robert Thomas won the o-zone face-off, went to the net, and Colton Parayko's wrister got through, Thomas tipped the puck for are bound and on the doorstep, Neighbours scored his 20th high-danger goal.
"Set face-off play," Neighbours said. "They kind do whatever they want, I go to the net. It was a good shot. 'Tommer' got a stick on it and it bounced right to me."
* Kadri high stick costly for Flames -- A Blues fan's nemesis from his days with the Colorado Avalanche, Nazem Kadri high-sticked Scott Perunovich near the Flames bench and drew blood, also drawing a double minor at 5:26, and although the Blues didn't capitalize in the front half, Buchnevich put the Blues ahead 3-2 at 8:54 on a wrister from the left circle, his first in 14 games.
"I feel better. I wish I score last game, but it's hockey," Buchnevich said. "We got win today and hopefully we keep chasing playoff."
* More net front issues -- Kuzmenko scored his second of the night at 16:15 to tie the game 3-3 on another missed coverage play down low.
The Flames were able to work the puck to the slot and Kadri flipped a backhand towards the goal, and Kuzmenko was alone there to tip it past Binnington.
"I think it started with our puck play," Bannister said. "We were too slow doing things. It caused us issues having to play more in the d-zone. I just thought our decisions were too slow. There was too much separation from where the puck was turned over to us starting to defend. There's no question they were able to get under us pretty easily tonight. That's something we have to get better at. And our D have been pretty good at cutting plays off as of late. That's something moving forward, we're going to have to be better at protecting our net front, making sure that we collapse and do a better job for our goaltending."
It would come down to a third period for the Blues to salvage a must-two points.
* Now the fun begins -- The third period seemed to be played at a frenetic pace.
The play was moving back and forth, and Calgary thought it had taken a 4-3 lead when Kuzmenko thought he had a hat trick at 1:11, but officials waved off the goal for high sticking.
Kuzmenko was at the net front, again, another issue on this particular night, knocking down a point shot and pushing the rebound in.
That was the first break the Blues got, because it seemed like it was a play the officials could have allowed to happen and then look at afterwards, but they immediately waved it off to keep it a 3-3 game.
Saad has been money with either game-tying or go-ahead/game-winning goals, and he struck again at 2:04 to give the Blues a 4-3 lead when Yegor Sharangovich turned the puck over behind his net, Jordan Kyrou got it and fed Saad for a quick shot, his fourth straight game with a goal.
"They just seem to be going in. I think the belief and how we're playing confident as a group, obviously playing with some good players there. Getting the opportunities and it's nice to finish them.
"It was just a good forecheck by 'Schenner'. They had pressure on the puck and 'Rouzy' ended up with it. I just kind of found open ice and he made a great pass to me in the slot."
The Flames had another goal overturned when Andersson's wraparound 15 seconds after Saad's go-ahead goal would have tied the game 4-4, but the Blues challenged the play for off-side and it was clear the puck had left the zone before the Flames tagged up and it was overturned easily.
"Honestly, personally, I didn't know what was going on," Neighbours said. "It was kind of crazy how they couldn't review the one, then we score, they tie it, it gets disallowed. Kind of just a weird one. I've never seen it before, but obviously we came out on the right side of the lead. From that point on, we had to wake up and play the right way and hold that lead."
* Hold the lead, they did -- The Blues seemed to clamp things down better holding the 4-3 lead, and after Toropchenko initially missed a chance to put the game away, Buchnevich did with an empty-netter at 18:45 to seal the win at 5-3. And Binnington picked up his second assist of the game on the play.
"When I look at the game overall, I thought we looked physically and mentally tired with some of the plays that we were making," Bannister said. "They got us in trouble and not to make any excuses, but you can see it kind of going through the room and you can see the effects today with the lack of energy. We still found away to win the hockey game and it's an important two points for us. Those are games maybe when you look back, when we struggled a few weeks back on the road, we were finding ways to lose games. We found a way to win a game here tonight."
