ST. LOUIS -- Many questions were asked when the St. Louis Blues finished a three-game homestand against the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
Could they build momentum off the first win under Drew Bannister? How would Jordan Kyrou react and perform two days after getting booed? Could the Blues start strong against a team playing the second of a back to back? And if they fell behind, how would the Blues respond with a new coach trying to lead them back?
All questions that warranted an answer, and most questions were delivered by the Blues in a positive light, and it resulted in a 4-3 overtime win against the Stars at Enterprise Center.
The Blues (15-14-1) were able to build momentum, despite some bumps in the road, and improve to 2-0-0 under Bannister. Kyrou responded accordingly with a goal and two assists, including the winner on Colton Parayko's OT goal. The Blues didn't get the start they wanted, but they did win a game for the first time this season when falling behind 2-0 and trailing by multi goals at any point in a game.
Let's look at the three-period takeaways and dissect how this one went down with the Blues victorious in the end:
* First Period -- Bannister spoke following an optional morning skate of playing aggressive and being direct against a Stars team playing the second of a back-to-back after a 5-4 win on home ice against the Ottawa Senators, who the Blues beat here 4-2 on Thursday.
The Blues didn't get it. I thought they were on their heels a bit early, and the Stars (17-9-4) struck at 4:58 when their third line of Mason Marchment, Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin entered the Blues zone, and Marchment scored a slam dunk goal making it 1-0.
A puck was chipped down to the goal line, and Seguin immediately flipped a backhand to the slot, where Marchment was waiting while Jake Neighbours was unaware of his assignment and missed the coverage.
And when Ty Dellandrea made it 2-0 at 6:47, the Blues challenged the play for goalie interference on Sam Steel but lost it.
They were faced with that multi-goal deficit in which they were 0-14-0 in, including 0-11-0 when trailing 2-0, and now had to kill a penalty for delay of game by losing the challenge.
They got through that kill not allowing a shot on goal. Then slowly began to tilt the ice.
Dellandrea took a tripping penalty against Hugh McGing at 11:19, and at the tail end of it, Brandon Saad's one-timer from the left circle made it a 2-1 game.
Kevin Hayes won the face-off and kicked it to Kyrou, who moved the puck down the left side near the wall and flipped Saad a backhand feed for the quick one-timer to the short side to make it 2-1, the Blues' eighth power-play goal of the season (8-for-84).
"'Haysie' won the draw and I just tried to go down the wall and I just saw 'Sadder' on the pocket," Kyrou said. "I just tried to slide it to him.
"Yeah it's a boost for sure. Our power play's definitely been struggling this year. To get that is huge for us."
* Second Period -- Kyrou tied it 2-2 at 1:36 on a breakaway that started with a strong Robert Thomas back-check winning the puck and getting it quickly to Torey Krug, who led a streaking Kyrou in on Scott Wedgewood before snapping a wrister glove side.
The Blues were all over it in the period, outshooting the Stars 16-6, but they had to kill off two more penalties, including one on Krug for holding at 4:54 and one on Brayden Schenn for tripping at 9:20.
"I thought our penalty kill was outstanding," Bannister said.
"After the challenge there, I thought our kill was good and then our power play, our special teams was realy good," Parayko said. "Great goal there by 'Saader' on the power play, great play by 'Rouzy.' I thought after that, we had a good push and we kept going and we went up 3-2. I thought that was a big part of it."
Kevin Hayes gave the Blues their first lead when he scored at 16:45 to make it 3-2, his seventh goal in 13 games after having just two the first 17.
When Krug took a pass from Faulk, he threw it cross ice to Alexey Toropchenko, who skated into the Stars zone, fired a shot that grazed off Thomas Harley, off the end boards back towards the crease where Hayes was charging in off the right side.
The Blues had a 25-15 edge in shots on goal and were looking good despite having just the one-goal lead.
* Third Period -- The Blues managed the play well, especially early, and it looked like they would be able to manage the one-goal lead properly.
"The third period, we came out, I didn't think we necessarily sit back too much," Faulk said. "We were still, at least the beginning of it, we were stingy. They weren't getting too much going through the neutral zone or anything."
The Stars weren't, but then the Blues started mismanaging pucks a bit, they got soft and weren't hard enough on pucks. Jordan Binnington had to make a couple key saves, including ones on Radek Faksa and Seguin midway through the period, but the Stars tied it 3-3 when Duchene won a face-off with Schenn, Harley found Heiskanen, whose shot from the top of the right circle first grazed off Schenn's stick, and Evgenii Dadonov tipped it from the slot over Binnington's shoulder at 13:09.
"Even in the third, they got a few chances, they got the late goal there, which we'd like to get back obviously, but I thought we played well," Faulk said.
Pavel Buchnevich had a chance to win it late, but his shot from the left circle with 1:14 remaining beat Wedgewood but pierced the right post.
* Overtime -- The Blues started with Parayko, Thomas and Kyrou; the Stars countered with Seguin, Heiskanen and Duchene.
Dallas, which won 58 percent (37-for-54) of the draws, won the face-off, but Heiskanen lost the puck in the neutral zone and the Blues gained possession.
They cycled until Kyrou got a lane where he could burst through and into the zone, taking Heiskanen wide off the right post. His shot got Wedgewood down, but Parayko was charging the net, leaving Seguin behind him, pulling the puck slightly back and lifting it into the net over Wedgewood to win the game.
"I just saw it there," Parayko said. "He was down, the goalie. Good drive by Rou and then just tried to get it over his back because I saw he was still down.
"I think I tried pulling it in a little bit and then just get it over the pad. Quick play, happened quick, but good win for our group I think."
