Instant Analysis: Blues Rally In Third Period To Pull Out 5-4 Win Over Red Wings

It wasn’t looking for there for the St. Louis Blues on Saturday afternoon against the Detroit Red Wings.

Having to overcome a pair of two-goal deficits and a third period deficit, where they were 0-6-0 when trailing after two, it appeared the visitors were headed for a losing month of October.

But three goals in a span 4:38, including Aleksanteri Kaskimaki’s first NHL goal that turned out to be the game-winner, and the Blues pulled out an improbable 5-4 win over the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

The Blues (7-6-1) thus finish above .500 in the month of October for the first time since the 2021-22 season when they were 6-1-0 and finished that season 49-22-11.

This one wasn’t pretty, and maybe it helps erase the 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday when the Blues felt they played a game they should have won and were simply beaten by Montreal goalie Jacob Fowler’s 46-save shutout.

Here, they didn’t play particularly well at all for large swaths of this one but found a way to get two points maybe they didn’t necessarily deserve. The swings of an 84-game season can bring that about.

As for the game itself, let’s delve into it the key moments …

* Three goals in 4:38 – The Blues found themselves down 4-2 with roughly 12 minutes to play and were on their way with what looked like a seventh loss in as many games when trailing after two when they entered the period down 3-2.

But Pavel Buchnevich’s goal at 8:37, after a nifty little backhand sauce from Jake Neighbours entering the zone along the righthand side gave Buchnevich space through the middle of the ice before ripping a shot into the top left corner to make it 4-3:

Justin Barron tied it 4-4 at 12:57 on a play all started by him with a heck of a leap off his skates on a flip out, he catches the puck and all in one motion, spins and moves the puck quickly up to Jimmy Snuggerud, who was able to get the puck into the middle of the ice for Barron to stay in the play and one-time a shot past John Gibson:

And just 18 seconds later at 13:15, Kaskimaki put the Blues ahead for good at 5-4 when Pius Suter was able to bring the puck around the wall to Alexey Toropchenko, who quickly put a shot towards the net and Kaskimaki was there on the short side to tip it past Gibson:

The Blues did a nice job the rest of the way of shutting it down, even after Detroit (6-5-3) pulled Gibson with three minutes to play, including Suter back-checking to break up a potential last-second one-timer at the net with the chance to tie the game.

* Fighting through without Colton Parayko – Parayko did not play and is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury, which meant the Blues were going to have to get it done with a younger group, including Theo Lindstein, who was recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Friday.

It also meant Parayko’s big minutes (20:49 average time per game) were going to have to be picked up, including on the penalty kill, and yes, Philip Broberg was beat back down the ice that enabled Keegan Kolesar to score on a breakaway and give Detroit a 2-1 lead 41 seconds into the second period, but he and Brandon Carlo were able to play solid shutdown minutes and each finish at plus-2, with Broberg playing a game-high 27:09 and Carlo finishing at 21:22.

Cam Fowler (21:16) was paired with Adam Jiricek (20:22) who I thought had a really solid game playing in some key moments and needing to step into the top four with Parayko out

* Justin Barron continues to impress – What else can be said for a waiver wire pickup? Barron continues to make an impact after having a goal and an assist to give him eight points (two goals, six assists) in his first 11 games in a Blues uniform.

He makes a terrific play on his goal, and also helped set up Dalibor Dvorsky’s opener at 2:29 of the opening period for a 1-0 lead when he had a shot chance but instead chose to make a nice slip pass into the slot for Dvorsky to cut to his backhand:

Barron played 15:44 and is now up to eight points (two goals, six assists) in 11 games with the Blues this season; he had just nine assists with the Nashville Predators last season in 52 games and has never had more than 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) in any NHL season, and that was with the Montreal Canadiens in 2022-23.

At this pace, if Barron plays out the season, he would be on pace to shatter his personal bests with 59 points (15 goals, 44 assists) in 81 games.

Perhaps playing in a system that allows the defensemen to jump into plays and play more aggressively is suiting Barron’s style well with the Blues. So far, so good. He’s been a terrific add thus far.

* Snuggerud goal key to comeback – There’s just certain goals in a game where you say, “Remember that one,” at critical junctures.

When Snuggerud scored with 27.1 seconds left in the second period to cut Detroit’s lead to 3-2, that was the one.

The Blues had just switched up their line combinations to reset to where they were for the majority of the season, and Broberg’s rim around was aggressively forechecked by Robert Thomas, who took the puck to the net hard before Snuggerud was there to deposit the loose change:

Yes, Detroit did increase its lead to 4-2 on Emmitt Finnie’s goal early in the third on the power play, but if you’re down 3-1 and that goal makes it 4-1, chances of a comeback are pretty remote.

But getting a late-period goal like that when the Blues had little to no mojo going on can give a group a spark, and it certainly did re-energize a pretty dead group.

* 15 shots gets it done – The Blues had lots of success on Gibson in the past, most notably when he was a member of the Anaheim Ducks. Gibson was 8-16-1 with a 3.39 goals-against average and .895 save percentage against St. Louis for his career.

Getting shots on the veteran goalie would have proved to be beneficial. But when Dvorsky scored, it was the Blues’ only shot for the next 26:36 of the game. Gibson made his first save (on Dvorsky) just over nine minutes into the second period. The Blues were not forechecking to create zone time and the Red Wings were defending what little the Blues had early on well enough.

They had just three shots on goal halfway through the game and finished with 15, but once they started to funnel the few pucks they had at Gibson, they were able to find the back of the net and finished with a robust 33.3 percent shooting for the game on 47 shot attempts.

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