St. Louis Blues defenseman Cam Fowler (right) lifts the puck over Detroit Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot in overtime of a 2-1 St. Louis win, their 10th straight, on Tuesday at Enterprise Center. (Jeff Le-Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/8f132ef9-dd2e-4c3e-8201-c76a021435ea.jpeg] St. Louis Blues defenseman Cam Fowler (right) lifts the puck over Detroit Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot in overtime of a 2-1 St. Louis win, their 10th straight, on Tuesday at Enterprise Center. (Jeff Le-Imagn Images) ST. LOUIS – Seriously, who really saw this coming? From this St. Louis Blues [http://thn.com/stlouis] team that was the last in the NHL this season to win three games in a row, let alone 10, after finding a way to win in a different fashion on Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings [http://thn.com/detroit]. When Cam Fowler scored at 3:27 of overtime to cap a last-minute comeback, staring at the clutches of defeat for the first time in 19 days, before rallying past the Red Wings 2-1, it gave the Blues (41-28-7) their 10th straight win. Consider this: the Blues, who by the way are now one point ahead of the Minnesota Wild [http://thn.com/minnesota] – who have a game in hand – for the first wild card in the Western Conference, were the last team in the NHL this season to put together a three-game winning streak, and it took nine(!) tries to do that, now are the hottest team in the NHL; they are one win shy of matching the franchise record for consecutive wins at 11 (accomplished by the 2019 Stanley Cup champion side) and one win from matching the Winnipeg Jets [http://thn.com/winnipeg] for longest winning streak in the league this season. How is this happening? There is some serious mojo going on around here considering the fact the Blues were 29 seconds away from being blanked by Cam Talbot, the same Cam Talbot who was offered up as a sacrificial lamb in this very building when the Blues downed the Wild in the first round of the playoffs just three years ago. But Jordan Kyrou help steal a valuable point with a sixth-attacker goal set up by none other than Fowler, and then Fowler won it in OT. “It’s been a fun ride here,” Fowler said. “We’ve all enjoyed playing with one another. There’s not many opportunities you have in this league to keep a streak like this going. It was one of those games where they did a good job of limiting our chances and we just had to stay as patient as we possibly could. “We’ve kept faith for a long time now knowing that we can win hockey games no matter how much time is left. Our guys just stuck with it and everybody made some big-time plays that helped us win. It’s fun to be able to keep this thing rolling.” Jordan Binnington, named the NHL's third star of the month for March, made 20 saves, some of them key stops. “I don’t know if mental toughness is the right word, but the way we stick to it,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. ‘We said we need to simplify in the third, we thought our second was too much east-west, too many turnovers, not winning enough battles. We just had to get back to our identity and who we are. I felt we did as good a job as we could. We didn’t have much juice in the legs tonight and for whatever reasons, that just happens. First time we’ve had two days off in a while and maybe we didn’t handle that the right way. We’ll take another day off tomorrow and we’ll get back at it Thursday.” It was a triumphant win and debut for 2022 first-round pick (No. 23 overall) Jimmy Snuggerud, who joined the Blues after signing his three-year, entry-level contract on Friday [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/blues-top-prospect-expected-to-make-nhl-debut-tuesday]. How about those Three Takeaways: * Montgomery’s early goalie pull – It was only 1-0, and there was 3:23 remaining in regulation, but Montgomery felt it was the right time to lift Binnington. The Blues had allowed the Red Wings (34-33-7) to forge ahead when J.T. Compher broke the scoreless stalemate at 5:13 of the third period and they just didn’t seem like they were going to have that overwhelming push to level the game or take a lead. Montgomery saw some flaws that perhaps could be exposed and decided to go with an extra body on the ice that finally paid off when Fowler was able to slide down a seam play to Kyrou, who didn’t get all of his quick shot but enough to slide it through the seemingly impenetrable Talbot. Jordan Kyrou ties the game with 29 seconds left in regulation. “We’re just trying to attack there,” Kyrou said. “Not much time on the clock and we get a recovery there. Obviously [Flower] made a helluva pass to me right to the seam there and I just tried to tip it.” Fowler added, “We had some opportunities from probably the three-minute mark. And we had a lot of possession down there, so I think they were just keeping us to the outside. We were getting a couple good looks, but for the most part, 6-on-5 you have to find a way to get pucks to the net and to the dirty areas. That’s where the goals are scored. I just saw a little seam to ‘Rouzy’ there and he made a great tip to get us the goal to tie it up. It’s more just about trying to funnel pucks to the front of the net 6-on-5, create as much chaos as much as you can.” But credit Montgomery, who wasn’t seeing the kind of attack he wanted at 5-on-5. “No, that’s why we pulled the goalie so early,” he said. “We weren’t creating enough chances, we didn’t have enough zone time and they were icing pucks because they were tired. “I felt that our first period was a pretty good period, but it wasn’t hard enough offensively, and I just felt like we kind of lost energy as the game went along. But the great thing is we found a way to win. Our third period continues to be a period where we play simple, our habits are at their best and our game management was the best. “They iced the puck. They were tired. All the guys that we used were fresh on the bench, so we didn’t have to use our time out and they were fresh. We thought it was a good time to try and get a goal. You don’t know if you’re going to get another offensive zone face-off.” * Sticking with it when not at their best – During this winning streak, one aspect of the Blues’ game that couldn’t be faulted is their cleanliness of puck movement. They had been swift, fluent, hitting guys in stride and not becoming terribly vulnerable with puck turnovers. Tonight was one of those rare instances. But they stuck with it and found a way. “It wasn’t sharp,” Montgomery said. ‘And I think it’s because of our brains. Our brains were slower today to make reads, checking and making plays offensively. We had a lot of odd-man rushes in the first 30 minutes and we didn’t get any real good scoring opportunities like we did on the 2-on-1 and the overtime winner.” It all goes into play when putting together such a winning streak as this, the good and the not-so-great. “Very hard. That’s an opportunity that doesn’t come around very often,” Fowler said. “We understand that and how special it is. It takes a lot of things to go right for that to be able to come true. I think it just speaks to our lineup top to bottom, the work that we’ve been putting in and we’ve had some comebacks here too in this streak. We’re finding ways to win hockey games and it’s a lot of fun coming to work and playing for one another. It’s a really tight group and we certainly enjoy going out and working for one another.” * Fowler’s deft hands to win it – Once the Blues got it to overtime, they have an edge. They have the ability to utilize multiple bodies and Fowler was one of them. The defenseman jumped into the play when Robert Thomas checked Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider off the puck in the defensive zone and created a 2-on-1. Once Thomas sauced a backhand towards Fowler, he had to use his hands to, first, corral a puck and pull it into stride, and two, be deft enough to lift it into the top end of the net to win it. Cam Fowler wins it for the Blues. “A quick little 2-on-1 there,” Fowler said. “Obviously ‘Tommer’s a great passer. He put me in a good position and I just saw myself in with a good chance on the goalie and tried to make a good shot. It was a good all-around play mostly by ‘Tommer.’ He set the whole thing up. “I think that’s the strength of our team, the depth that we have up front and on the back end. We feel like every night, there could be different guys contributing and helping us win hockey games. I think that’s totally true. We have a lot of weapons that we feel can help us in overtime, helps us stay fresh and energized as well.” As for who was going over the boards next? “We feel we have a lot of players. I think if we were going to make another change, it was going to be [Jake] Neighbours and Snuggerud going over,” Montgomery said. ‘It would mean I was going to use eight forwards and three D-men in the course of the 3-on-3 and that speaks to the depth of talented players that we have.”
