It was going to take a special performance by someone on the St. Louis Blues to help push them over the top and earn a win against the defending Stanley Cup champion, Vegas Golden Knights in their barn.
Jordan Binnington was more than a willing participant. The goalie stopped 33 shots, including two breakaways, poke-checked two would-be scoring opportunities and faced 20 high-danger Corsi-for chances by the Golden Knights and was only beaten once before Pavel Buchnevich netted the game-winner in a 2-1 win in overtime on Monday night at T-Mobile Arena.
There comes a time when goalies need to play above and beyond what's expected of them, and Binnington, who is 3-1-0 in his past four starts and has been solid in all of them, did his part, and the Blues (13-10-1) got just enough offense to reward their goalie.
Let's look at the three-period takeaways and dissect how this unfolded:
* First Period -- The Blues actually started this game off pretty well with puck possession and offensive zone time to begin the game, unlike their 4-1 loss at Arizona two days ago when the Coyotes scored in the game's first minute, but when a blocked shot off the stick of Justin Faulk caromed fortuitously into a breakaway for former Blue Ivan Barbashev, Binnington made the first of several key saves 1:42 in to tell he's locked and loaded for the fight.
And on the same play, Torey Krug, trying to hustle back to prevent the breakaway, was whistled for hooking, but the Blues limited Vegas to one shot and no harm.
But on the ensuing kill, Krug sprung out of the box for a breakaway of his own, but trying to go glove side on Logan Thompson, he fired wide of the net.
Then, after a turnover near the defensive zone blue line, Binnington flashed his glove from close range on Paul Cotter at 4:53 of the first period, like it was no big deal. Who knows? Maybe to him, it wasn't.
He then made multiple more stops throughout the period, including going 5-for-5 on high danger scoring chances in the first alone.
Keegan Kolesar took Vegas' lone penalty of the game, a holding minor on Nick Leddy at 16:32, but the Blues didn't do anything with it and the Golden Knights got as easy a kill as they could get.
Binnington used his stick for more than making saves. He poke-checked a puck off the stick of William Karlsson in front alone with 3:05 left in the period to keep the game scoreless.
Alexey Toropchenko struck with 20.7 seconds left in the period when he was in front and redirected Colton Parayko's wrister from the right past Thompson for a 1-0 lead.
The Blues were able to get a pair of puck retrievals on the play, and Toropchenko, as he should, was in front screening the goalie.
* Second Period -- The middle 20 minutes have been problematic for the Blues, and they almost were right off the hop, but Binnington made two instinctive saves on Kolesar and then the rebound, a ticklish and tricky rebound off Nicolas Roy's stick to keep it 1-0 just 35 seconds in.
Parayko had a chance to extend the Blues' lead but his clapper from the right circle alone missed the mark four minutes in.
Binnington came up large again, again on Barbashev at 8:53 off a Jack Eichel feed.
Brayden McNabb made a strong defensive play on Jordan Kyrou, who cut to the middle of the ice off the right with 6:23 remaining, but McNabb deflected the shot into the netting.
Then Oskar Sundqvist, who had the secondary assist on Toropchenko's goal, was parked in front of the net and spun with a rebound of Torey Krug's left point shot and fired wide of the net with 3:04 left.
Binnington's second effective poke-check came with 2:28 left in the period, when he surprised Eichel coming in alone.
* Third Period -- Parayko took an early penalty, a hooking minor that didn't look like anything at all, at 1:32 of the period, but the Blues didn't allow Vegas much of anything and got a big kill.
Binnington made a quick right pad save on McNabb's close range opportunity at 5:46 after an initial flurry to his left.
Scott Perunovich had his best chance to score his first NHL goal when Thompson stopped the Blues defenseman rushing in down the slot at 10:06, minutes after passing up a quality shooting opportunity from the right circle.
The Blues were doing effective things with the puck and not allowing the quality scoring chances protecting the lead but finally got themselves in hot water when Buchnevich took a tripping minor at 12:09. He tried to prevent an odd-man rush opportunity going back towards the Blues' zone after Robert Thomas tried to thread an east-west pass just inside the offensive zone blue line that was off the mark.
And true to form, Eichel made the Blues pay with a screened wrister from just inside the right circle to tie the game 1-1 at 12:58 off a face-off win and feed from another former Blue, Alex Pietrangelo.
But what was good was the Blues finally got back on the horse and started carrying some play in the offensive zone. Thompson had to make a solid save on Kevin Hayes to the right of the goal with 6:13 remaining and then another one on Kyrou with 2:10 to play.
Overtime -- The Blues started the extra session with Buchnevich, Thomas and Parayko. Vegas countered with Pietrangelo, Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault.
The Blues won the face-off and never relinquished it, and Buchnevich ended it 38 seconds in when he was all alone to the right of the goal and beat Thompson short side.
Vegas looked like it wanted to get a jump thinking the Golden Knights skaters could get a beat on Thomas, who had to control a wobbling puck, but when he did, he fed Buchnevich, who made no mistake and rewarded Binnington for his scintillating performance and kept the Blues unblemished when scoring the first goal (12-0-0).
