Golden Knights increase lead over Blues to five points with 10 games to play; Marchessault nets game-winner after Buchnevich misses penalty shot in OT with chance to win it
ST. LOUIS -- There was a pre-game feel to the buzz surrounding the St. Louis Blues game against the team they're chasing for the Western Conference wild card, the Vegas Golden Knights.
Four points just separated the teams heading into a Monday battle at Enterprise Center and it was expected to be a tight affair.
It played out just as advertised, but it was a game in which the Blues needed a regulation win as the hunters to really give themselves a terrific chance at staying in it until the end.
It wasn't the worst possible outcome, but one almost as bad, falling 2-1 in overtime and losing ground in the standings.
When Jonathan Marchessault scored 49 seconds into OT, the Blues (38-30-4) fell five points out with 10 games to play; Vegas has 11 games remaining, including Tuesday night against the red-hot Nashville Predators.
"You don't want to come out of the game being one point less than you started, but the reality is they have a tough schedule too and we feel good in our locker room right now," said Blues captain Brayden Schenn. "We're obviously going to have to get some help along the way, but where our game's at right now, we feel like we're capable of grabbing two points each night."
Let's look at the takeaways from the game and touch on some of the key points that were crucial to the outcome:
* Not a ton of juice from the Blues -- Whether it was Vegas' style of play or not quite being up to snuff on what mattered most, the Blues didn't seem to have the bite from an execution standpoint to grab an early lead.
Their puck possession and movement of it was off kilter, whether Vegas had something to do with it or not. But it was evident that the Golden Knights (39-25-7)fel the intensity of the matchup and wanted push the Blues further back in the rear view mirror.
* Vegas strikes first -- It was unfortunate how it happened, but Vegas struck first when Pavel Dorofeyev stuffed in a shot from the top of the crease at 5:59 for a 1-0 Golden Knights lead.
With the puck over along the boards, Nathan Walker got there to forecheck Dorofeyev off the puck but he was shoved and down, creating some space. Anthony Mantha was along the wall and for the puck but for whatever reason, Scott Perunovich went to go and challenge Mantha when Walker was there along with Pavel Buchnevich, creating a void down low. Mantha got Dorofeyev the puck and Justin Faulk was alone to man the slot area or go challenge the puck handler. Pick your poison since Perunovich made an ill-advised play. Faulk protected the slot and Dorofeyev took the puck to the net and beat Jordan Binnington.
"Yeah, so there was a battle in the corner there," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. "'Walks' losing his footing. I think it was Scotty Perunovich probably should've just held his ice, let him get up and recover in that situation and probably that play wouldn't have happened."
* Schenn sticks up for Saad -- The Blues had the game's first power-play midway through the first and the feel for the game had some high heat.
Brandon Saad moved down along the wall to play a puck but was belted by Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb, with Saad smacking his head off the glass and shaken up at 9:50. Schenn was there to stick up for his teammate, fighting his Saskatchewan buddy.
"He's a buddy. He's from Saskatchewan. I train with him," Schenn said of McNabb. "That's just the playoff style atmosphere and you stick up for your teammates. I'm a firm believer in it doesn't matter who it is, you have to show that you care about your teammates. Obviously a hard hit by McNabb. Good to see Saader's OK."
Vegas led 1-0 after 20 minutes and 13-10 on the shot clock.
* Sundqvist injured -- Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist was injured at 9:50 of the second period on the Blues' second power play when he was popped from the side by, you guessed it, McNabb, and Sundqvist's right leg cracked into the boards and he needed help off the ice favoring his right leg.
With the Blues already playing 11 forwards and seven defensemen, they were now down to 10 forwards in the game, thanks to Saad being able to return and Schenn finally out of the box after serving seven minutes.
"I felt that we went to 11 forwards in the third period (against Minnesota Saturday) and we seemed to get a lot of energy," Bannister said of his rationale using 11/7. "I wanted to get my best players the most ice time here tonight. Obviously it's an important game for us, and we felt we put the 20 best players on the ice that deserved to be out there tonight."
* Binnington makes key saves -- Binnington, who had 32 saves in the game, was called upon for key stops in the game. One in particular was on Nicolas Hague's one-timer at the end of the second period to keep it a 1-0 game when the Blues weren't moving the puck as well as they needed to, to gain strong offensive zone time.
He made a timely save on Mantha's breakaway in the third period that likely would have put the game away.
* The Blues pressed hard -- The Blues finally came out with a solid purpose in the third period.
They outshot Vegas 14-8 in the third period and hit three posts and one near-miss by Buchnevich on a redirect that just clipped off the bar and the top of the net.
Schenn hit a post, Krug did it twice.
"I was shooting, so I had a lot of chances tonight," said Krug, who had six shots on goal. "I saw it hit his shoulder and hit the bar and was hoping it went in. Obviously it didn't. In the third period we were skating and we were making plays. That's just another example of one of the many chances that we couldn't get to go behind him."
* Thompson was matching Binnington -- Vegas goalie Logan Thompson was not to be denied in the 1-on-1 goalie battle.
The Vegas goalie also had his moments, including sticking with Blues center Kevin Hayes trying to get creative and score a Peter Forsberg-style goal at 3:24.
* Saad finally breaks barrier -- All the chances, all the near-misses, the Blues finally broke the Thompson barrier.
Saad tied the game 1-1 at 14:53 of the third after Jordan Kyrou's forecheck to win a puck, gain some speed through the neutral zone, feed Schenn along the right, and the captain scooped a long-range sauce pass across the goal mouth to Saad to finish at the back post.
The Blues pushed in the final five minutes and had a couple more near-misses but each team gained a point through regulation.
* Buchnevich chance to win it -- The Blues won the opening face-off again, and Buchnevich saw an opening to dart through two Vegas skaters, including Noah Hanifin, who took the Blues forward down driving the net resulting in a penalty shot at 30 seconds.
Game on the line, extra point on the line, and the Blues could pull within three points, but Thompson gloved Buchnevich's cut to the left and the game continued.
"Certainly he's a player you want that opportunity," Bannister said. "The goalie made a good save. That's part of the game.
"We had the opportunities. In the third period, we had some good looks and the goalie was able to keep the puck out of the net. But it wasn't from the lack of opportunities. We had them. We had to finish on our chances."
* Marchessault wins it for Vegas -- Thompson's key save turned into Marchessault's winner that developed on a puck to the right corner, and both Krug and Schenn converged on William Karlsson. A 2-on-1 puck battle should come out in the Blues' favor, but Marchessault, opportunistic, poked the puck free, came around the net with it and fired past Binnington at 49 seconds.
"We tried to double [Karlsson] up behind the net so that we could regain possession of the puck and their guy got to it," Krug said. "I just couldn't get back out in front. My stick was stuck and too much time for a good player. Ultimately, it's going to end up in the back of the net."
Schenn added, "It looked like the d-man fumbled it coming in on Kruger, puck went in the corner, we had a 2-on-1, just tried to outnumber him early and I think the puck just popped to Marchessault and me and 'Kruger' got hung up and he was able to make a good shot."
In the end, the Blues lose a valuable point but in going 6-1-1 their past eight games, they will continue to fight. But time is running out.
"Yeah it was great and games like this are why you want to play in St. Louis," Krug said. "Great home ice advantage, fun atmosphere. This time of year, you want to be playing important hockey games. Good for us to hang in there, but we just couldn't get that extra one to push forward in the playoff race."
"Obviously big game for us, important points. We're going to go down swinging. I felt like we carried the momentum in the third period and just couldn't get more than one by him. Obviously in overtime, anything can happen. That's just tough not getting that extra one."
