ST. LOUIS -- There are games one deserves to win and don't, and there are games one wins but doesn't necessarily deserve to.
Case in point with the St. Louis Blues on Thursday against the New York Rangers, they may have won a game they may not have deserved to but got some outstanding performances by certain individuals that carved out a 5-2 win.
To name a few, Jordan Binnington (40 saves) in goal, Jordan Kyrou (three goals), Pavel Buchnevich (one goal, two assists) and Robert Thomas (two assists) as a top line performed well, and the Blues (21-18-1) were able to get multiple special teams goals for just the third time this season.
Turnovers didn't hurt the Blues, as coach Drew Bannister lamented in his postgame remarks, but the Blues sure had a number of them in this game.
Let's take a look at the three-period takeaways that managed to see the Blues take home their third win in four games in January.
* First Period -- What looked like it may gave been an omen early, Kyrou actually passed up on a shot in the opening minute of a game, a puck rolling off his stick trying to set up Pavel Buchnevich that ultimately led to a Torey Krug giveaway and almost near-disaster when Alexis Lafreniere hit the post.
That would have been quite the opening.
But the Blues' lethargic start led to a goal against when Adam Fox made it 1-0 at 1:51 when the defenseman was able to get in between a slew of veterans, collect a Barclay Goodrow rebound, spin and score from the bottom of the left circle.
Despite the plethora of turnovers (12 according to Bannister in the period), the Blues had a decent response and were able to tie the game because the top line had some mojo.
Kyrou tied it 1-1 at 4:02 when he caught and released a Robert Thomas entry into the zone on the lefthand side, quick cut and pass into the slot. Kyrou received it and scored it over Igor Shesterkin's stick side.
Nick Bonino sent a puck into the stands for delay of game at 6:30, and the Blues, who switched up their personnel for what was a 32nd-ranked power play, went to work on it and Kyrou made it 2-1 at 7:30 on a seamless zone entry, then tic-tac-toe passing with Thomas and Buchnevich to find Kyrou for the backdoor tap-in.
The Rangers outshot the Blues 13-8 in the opening period and had a large swath of territorial play based on the Blues' inability to manage pucks wisely.
* Second Period -- Kyrou had two first-period goals but Shesterkin kept him from gaining that hat trick early in the period with two scintillating saves, the first coming at 2:17 and the next one not long after.
"It's tough. You just want to keep a positive mindset," Kyrou said. "You've just got to keep going. You're going to get more chances. That's why I was just trying to stay positive on the next one."
There would be a next one, but the Rangers opened the door for the Blues to extend the lead with a slew of penalties, including Jonny Brodzinski at 4:10 for holding, Goodrow for interference at 6:32 and finally, Vincent Trocheck for hooking at 9:13.
The Blues didn't execute well on the first two but cashed in on the third power play of the period when Brandon Saad converted a one-timer from the right circle at 9:26 for a 3-1 lead.
It marked the third time this season the Blues scored multiple power-play goals in a game. The others were Dec. 23 in a 7-5 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, and Nov. 11 in an 8-2 win at the Colorado Avalanche when they scored two in each of those games.
"I think we simplified a little bit," Saad said of the power play. "We shot more pucks and plays opened up more. I think doing that early on, our skill would take over and we capitalized on some chances."
At some point, the Blues were going to have to kill penalties, and Krug took their first minor at 12:52 for slashing as a result of the defenseman not handling Matthew Kessel's pass from the right point and nearly turning into a breakaway for Chris Kreider.
But after a few close calls, including two Kreider tips at the net off the post, the Blues survived and led 3-1 after two despite being outshot 27-15.
But thanks to Binnington and his 14 saves in that period, they led by two.
* Third Period -- It was no secret that the Rangers, who lead the Metropolitan Division, would come out fast and furious trying to get back in the game.
The Blues would have to kill off a Brayden Schenn high-sticking penalty 200 feet from his own net at 3:55, and Binnington needed to come up and hold his ground again.
The Rangers kept pushing and pushing; they prodded and threw pucks at the Blues net but couldn't find an answer.
Fox even had a chance that had him looking skyward shaking his head.
And Kyrou would complete the hat trick with a breakaway goal at 7:01 to make it a 4-1 game when he took a loose puck from just outside the blue line and raced in beating Shesterkin low blocker. It came moments after defenseman Nick Leddy nearly had a costly mistake when he played a puck cross-crease in his own zone that was nearly intercepted.
"It feels great," Kyrou said. "I've said this before I love playing here. I love the fans. It feels awesome to get one at home."
Kyrou scored a hat trick March 11, 2023 at Columbus and Dec. 19, 2022 at Vancouver.
"I had tons of chances today," Kyrou said. "My lineys were setting me up."
The Rangers would get a glimmer of hope when Trocheck's power-play goal at 10:58 made it 4-2. He would knock home Artemi Panarin's pass off the back boards from the right circle with Binnington sprawled out.
Thomas was in the box for slashing at 9:40 as a result of Leddy turnover in the Blues' zone.
"The turnovers. I think we had 12 turnovers in the first. It got somewhat better but not a whole lot better," Bannister said. "We made it easy on them. We could have made it much more easier on us. For whatever reason, we wanted to force plays through the neutral zone, make the extra play, make the dangerous play. We weren't predictable. All we had to do was really just chip pucks off walls and skate onto them and put it under and that game would have been a lot different."
For all the puck gaffes the Blues had, they did sacrifice the body and blocked 23 shots. Krug blocked one that had him limping to the bench and down the tunnel with 5:40 remaining but he did return and Bannister said he was fine.
Binnington took care of most of the Rangers' threats, though.
"I mean yeah, he's been unbelievable, right," Kyrou said. "He definitely bailed us out for sure a couple times tonight."
When the Rangers pulled Shesterkin with roughly three minutes to play, they had plenty of territorial zone time, but Buchnevich, who had missed an empty net moments earlier, put home the finishing touches of a 5-2 win scoring at 19:42.
"If I'm being honest, it's a game I didn't like our team at all 5-on-5 for the majority of the game," Bannister said. "But you look at the Colorado game (a 2-1 loss Dec.29), we probably deserved two points in that game and then tonight, if it wasn't for the performance of Binner and our power play being able to score the two goals, I don't know if we get out of here with two points. Obviously happy with the two points. It's an important two points. It's a good hockey team over there, but I thought we made it easy on them here tonight. We can't continue to do that. That's not winning hockey and we're not going to win many games like that playing that way."
