ST. LOUIS -- Two teams fighting tooth-and-nail in the Western Conference standings right now, one expected a tightly-contested game between the St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings.
Even if the Kings have been scuffling badly.
The Blues had the chance to leapfrog not only the Kings but also the Nashville Predators and into the top wild card spot in the Western Conference. They had to settle for one by jumping over Nashville and even with the Kings, but it was a fifth straight win for the Blues, their third in a row in overtime, and fourth straight 4-3 score, this time beating the Kings at Enterprise Center on Sunday.
It was a tough game for the Blues (26-20-2) to play despite playing a struggling Kings squad (22-15-10), who have won just two of their past 16 games (2-8-6).
It was a three-game road trip out to Alberta and the Pacific Northwest on Friday, a long flight home on Saturday and an early afternoon game on Sunday playing the fourth game in six days.
But the Blues, who got a Brayden Schenn game-winner for the second time in three games, were somehow able to dig deep and get the two points and pull even with the Kings with 54 points.
Let's break down the three-period takeaways and highlight some of the key moments throughout a fifth straight win by the Blues:
* First Period -- It was an ominous beginning, as arguably the Blues' best penalty killer [Colton Parayko] was whistled for hooking 27 seconds into the game.
But the aggressive Blues nearly scored a league-leading 12th shorthanded goal twice, and both by Pavel Buchnevich when he whistled a shot wide of the near post at 1:17 and then couldn't redirect what looked like a gimme tap-in after Marco Scandella took a great pass from Robert Thomas and sauced Buchnevich a beauty of a pass at the back post at 1:23.
But the Kings had most of the push, and Adrian Kempe gave them a 1-0 lead at 4:06 after Jake Neighbours locked himself along the right wall and couldn't get a puck out keeping it in the zone, and Blues killer Anze Kopitar found Kempe in the left circle and he whipped a shot past Joel Hofer on the near side.
L.A. had the game's first seven shots on goal in the game, and it wasn't until Nick Leddy's shot on goal at 9:16 until the Blues had put anything near Kings goalie David Rittich.
"We had a tough first 10 minutes, there's no question about that," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. "It's a tough trip, right? We go up and play three games in four nights and then with the time change, travel back yesterday and then having an afternoon game, I don't know what the odds are of teams coming from the West coast to win hockey games, but we were able to keep it close, and then we seemed to find our legs in the second part of the first period and parts of the second."
The Blues did find their legs, no question, and Leddy got them on the board at 12:51 to tie the game 1-1 on a strong play by Jordan Kyrou, who had a goal and two assists, when he zipped by Andreas Englund along the right boards behind the net to find Leddy in the high slot. His slapper beat Rittich on the short side with the Kings five skaters sucked down too low, giving Leddy time to alter his shooting angle.
Not long after, L.A.'s Trevor Moore was called for a high sticking penalty at 13:34, but the Blues could not make it count, and in fact, Kempe somehow missed a wide open net in front that would have given the the Kings the lead at 15:33.
The Blues nearly evened the shot clock in the first after giving up the first seven, but the Kings held a 12-10 advantage in a period that the Kings controlled early, and the Blues tilted the ice in the second half.
* Second Period -- Hofer started making his impact in the game with a nice right kick save on Jaret Anderson-Dolan just 42 seconds in, and it looked like a similar start to the game for L.A.
Alex Laferriere was called for hooking at 4:36 sending the Blues to their second man-advantage, and this is where it got quirky.
Anderson-Dolan gave the Kings a 2-1 lead with a shorthanded goal at 5:39. It came after Schenn missed the net by a wide margin from the left circle. As he was trying to keep the puck in the zone, Torey Krug got to the boards and poked it ahead but not far enough resulting in a 3-on-2. Brandon Saad was not on his horse on the back-check and the Kings were able to crash the net before Anderson-Dolan popped in a backhand rebound.
But the Blues were able to fight back and tie it 2-2 when Buchnevich tied it 2-2 off the first of two Scott Perunovich assists (more on him later), a pass in the bumper for a one-timer 55 seconds after the Anderson-Dolan goal.
The Blues had another chance on the man-advantage when Pierre Luc-Dubois (are the Kings regretting that trade and ensuing extension?) was called for slashing at 8:30, but the league's top-ranked penalty kill was up to the task again. The Blues just had nothing going towards the net.
Kyrou did give the Blues their first lead at 3-2 finishing off a clinical passing play at 12:07.
It went Perunovich to Kyrou to Buchnevich to Robert Thomas to Perunovich, whose touch pass left Kyrou walking down the slot for the finish.
Another penalty led to another power play for the Blues when Mikey Anderson was called for holding at 16:37, but it didn't create any momentum for the Blues. In fact, they surrendered the lead not long after it ended when Phillip Danault tied it 3-3 at 18:44.
The power play didn't create much, and it was a fourth-line wall battle that Nikita Alexandrov lost twice that allowed the Kings to come off the boards with the puck and Danault beat Hofer from the slot.
The score (3-3) and shots (24-23 in favor of L.A.) was a strong indicator of what kind of game it was.
* Third Period -- There were no goals, but it was hardly boring.
Trevor Lewis gave the Blues a fifth power play at 2:27 for tripping, but no dice again.
The Blues did lose Perunovich midway through the third with a lower-body injury on this rush play:
Then we almost had a Michigan (from Kevin Fiala), or it looked like he tried but the puck rolled off his stick, and then Hofer made two really good saves, including one on Danault with 7:45 to play to keep the game tied.
Fiala would take L.A.'s last minor, a tripping penalty at 12:39 giving the Blues a sixth(!) power play, and their best chance came from Thomas at 14:15 when Rittich gloved the shot.
The game would go to overtime with the Kings holding a 32-30 edge in shots.
* Overtime -- Thomas tried to end it quickly but didn't get a ton on his chance off the left side going to the net, and then Los Angeles had an opportunity to win it, but Buchnevich made a terrific defensive play intercepting Danault's pass to Moore on the backside, going behind the net and finding Schenn with a stretch pass off the left boards, and Schenn does the rest with a wicked wrister off the post and in past Rittich's glove for the winner.
"Great read," Schenn said. "I think I saw Moore going back and I was late on it. He just got a stick in the way. He's a guy that breaks up a lot of plays, a guy that's good defensively and he was able to spring me.
"You just take off whenever you see a turnover in overtime. You just take off. Whether he gets you the puck or not, you just create space for him if he is going to carry it up. He's got great vision and he found me."
