ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks, no matter how good the two teams are, no matter how average they can be, or at times, how bad they can be, never seem to disappoint.
Or it's pretty rare that something significant doesn't happen.
Saturday was not the exception, and for the Blues, it was one of their 'Roar Bacon' moments.
They played enough lethargic hockey to, for a large portion of that game, deserve to lose, but dug down deep and found a way when they scored five unanswered goals in the third period of a wild 7-5 win against the Blackhawks at Enterprise Center.
There was a little bit of everything int his tilt, including the rare lacrosse-style goal scored by 2023 No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard (check it out down below).
Five Blues put up multiple points, including Jordan Kyrou with two goals, Robert Thomas and Justin Faulk each with a goal and an assist, and Kevin Hayes and Pavel Buchnevich with two assists each.
Let's get into it and break down the three-period takeaways from this wild one:
* First Period -- We know how good the Blues (17-15-1) have been when scoring first, and Thomas got the ball started just 3:04 in with a beauty of a goal, from the high slot finding the top left corner for his team-leading 13th of the season off a feed from Buchnevich in transition.
But just 45 seconds later, Bedard made the 18,096 ooh and aah with amazement. He was able to pull off 'The Michigan' from behind the Blues' net, scooping and curling a puck in over Binnington's left shoulder to tie the game 1-1.
How could you not marvel?
"I've seen it attempted," Faulk said. "I've had guys attempt it on us once or twice, but some guys can do it. A lot of guys can't. It's tough to prepare for. It's not something you expect to see. He found a chance and for those of you guys or anyone else that watches the highlights, you'll probably be able to see that one for a long time."
The Blues were somewhat stunned, and weren't ready for the ensuing face-off, and Anthony Beauvillier put Chicago up 2-1 23 seconds later at 4:12 when he redirected a shot past Binnington on Chicago's second shot of the game.
"We scored early. I thought we were playing OK," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. "I didn't think we were carrying the game. But I thought when that happened, we took a step back from what we were doing. I don’t know if you can defend that. It happens so quick, and it was clean. 'Binner,' he didn’t have a chance. I thought we could’ve been quicker to close when [Bedard] was behind the net. That might’ve stopped that from happening. But that’s a really highly skilled play by a good player. You’ve got to give him credit."
Each team traded power plays in the first period. The Blues didn't convert when Jarred Tinordi was called for interference at 15:28, and Thomas was called for hooking at 18:49 and the period finished Chicago ahead 2-1.
* Second Period -- But that Blackhawks power-play carried into the second and Nick Foligno made the Blues pay for opening the period asleep. He was alone in front of Binnington when he finished off Philipp Kurashev's shot 20 seconds in for a 3-1 lead.
There was a bit of a scary moment for Binnington when he was ran into by Mackenzie Entwistle at 7:17, but it was due to Faulk holding the Blackhawks forward, whose stick ran up into Binnington's mask but no injury.
Chicago didn't score on that power play, but Parayko cut the Blues' deficit to 3-2 when the fourth line kept a puck in the zone, worked it around to the big defenseman, whose one-timer from the right point beat Arvid Soderblom from distance at 13:29 with Wayne Gretzky in the house.
The Blues nearly tied the game when the top line created a great chance, with Buchnevich cutting the puck to the slot, but Soderblom made a save, and with Torey Krug caught in deep on the pinch, the Blackhawks raced out and finished a 2-on-1 with Jason Dickinson sliding in a Taylor Raddysh pass at 15:54 for a 4-2 Chicago lead.
If the Blues were to win on this night, they would have to do so for the first time trailing after two periods (0-14-0).
* Third Period -- There was some life early, when Alexey Toropchenko drew a holding penalty on Chicago defenseman Louis Crevier at 4:36, but Foligno increased Chicago's lead to 5-2 when he cut around Kyrou off the left to the front and backhanded in a shorthanded goal at 5:16.
It didn't look good for the home side.
But Connor Murphy took a cross checking minor at 6:04, and the Blues had a 5-on-3 power-play for 32 seconds, of which they didn't do much with. However, they were able to get one back when Saad redirected Hayes' pass with a nifty goal at 7:53 to make it 5-3.
"I think any time you have good special teams and score on the power play and create some momentum and then we got out there and we got another one," Saad said. "Obviously the power play was huge tonight in coming back."
Tinordi went back to the box for tripping Kasperi Kapanen at 10:13, and Jake Neighbours was in the right place, getting a piece of Faulk's one-timer from the left circle at 10:43 to make it 5-4.
"I think right when 'Saader' scored, we really felt it," Thomas said. "We go out the next shift and 'Kappy' draws a nice penalty and we score right away on the power play again. That's huge. Obviously our power play's been struggling, but they really came through for us tonight."
The momentum was soaring for the Blues and they wasted little time tying it.
Kyrou was the beneficiary of Thomas curling a puck around the left and centering to Kyrou, who made it 5-5 at 11:06.
"To be honest, I saw 'Buchy' and 'Rouzy' over there and just kind of put it over there," Thomas said. "I got lucky and apparently it landed on his stick and good finish from him."
The Blues were buzzing. They had multiple chances to go ahead but came close.
And then Alexey Toropchenko, a true warrior. He sacrificed not only his body but in this case, his face, by blocking a Dickinson shot that drew blood and sent the big Russian off the ice with just over four minutes left and preserved the tie and give the Blues a chance to win it.
And they did just that when Faulk's harmless wrister from the top of the right circle seemed to handcuff Soderblom and into the net with 2:07 to play for a 6-5 lead.
"I just took a peek and it looked like we had one of our forwards driving the middle there or both, two I guess," Faulk said. "I just tried laying it at the net. It might have went off the d-man's stick a bit and maybe even dove down by the time it got there. Got a break and I think our group will take that.
"Just scratch and claw, find a way. Obviously it's not a good feeling. We weren't too pleased with it, with ourselves, but we were able to get on the power play and the power play came up when we needed it too. That's what you want, just give us life and momentum and go from there. It's a hard thing to do, but you have to stick with it and keep them on their heels if you get a chance and our group did a good job of that."
Chicago pulled Soderblom not long after, but Kyrou made sure there would be no late-game dramatics when he poked a puck towards the neutral zone and beat Kevin Korchinski up the ice and push the puck into an empty net with 1:01 to play to seal the win on the Blues' 22nd shot of the period; they outshot the Blackhawks 22-2.
"I think the easiest thing to do is, we're down 4-2, they score to make 5-2 shorthanded. Like, we could pack it in easily," Bannister said. "They showed a lot of character coming back, there's no doubt about that. I believe in this team. I know that that group believes in themselves. I think tonight kind of solidifies that. For us, we can't look at the standings and who we're playing. For us, we have to win hockey games and it doesn't matter who we play. Every night we come, we have to be able to win."
"I think that's a big character win for our group," Saad said. "Any time you can battle back, like you said, it's getting late, you can kind of give up, but our group always believed. We talked at intermission that we were going to come back and win and thankfully, we did."
