Blues beat Sharks, 3-2 in shootout, as Jordan Binnington ties franchise record for wins
Published in Hockey
ST. LOUIS — Across the past two seasons, this particular shade of blue has given the Blues the blues.
Entering Thursday night's 3-2 Blues shootout win, the teal-clad Sharks have repeatedly handed St. Louis all the trouble it could handle. The Blues were winless last year against the Sharks, including a devastating home loss late in the season that crippled whatever playoff chances remained. This season, the Sharks jumped out to a three-goal lead before St. Louis stormed back for an overtime win.
On Thursday night, not even the pesky Sharks could prevent the Blues from once again reentering the win column.
Jake Neighbours scored the game-deciding goal in the third round of the shootout for St. Louis.
Jordan Kyrou and Nathan Walker scored in regulation for the Blues. Jordan Binnington made 22 saves as he tied Mike Liut for the most wins in franchise history (151).
Alexander Wennberg scored twice for the Sharks, including the game-tying goal with the extra attacker with 8.8 seconds left in the third period. Wennberg's equalizer came after the Blues passed up multiple chances to ice the game with an empty-net goal.
“They’re a team that’s always in it," Blues coach Drew Bannister said before the game. "They’re a relentless team. They never find themselves out of games. You look at the game (Wednesday) night (in Dallas), it’s 3-2 late in the game. They have a lot of belief in the room, and they’re playing hard. They look up at the score clock and they’re down by 20 shots and maybe it’s a 1-0 game, they’re very comfortable playing in those games.”
The Blues open a three-game road trip against the Islanders, Rangers and Devils on Saturday night on Long Island.
Snapping a skid
Kyrou’s second-period goal ended his six-game goalless streak, and he ended the streak in a similar way that he ended his previous drought: by driving to the net.
Kyrou stuffed home Pierre-Olivier Joseph’s centering pass from the boards after Joseph overlapped Robert Thomas to possess the puck with speed down the wall. It was Kyrou’s first goal since Nov. 7 against Utah, but Kyrou had five assists and 17 shots on goal during the drought.
Earlier this season, Kyrou had a 10-game drought that ended on Nov. 2 against Toronto, when a puck deflected off him at the net front and past Joseph Woll. Kyrou’s goal was the only one of a second period played entirely at five on five.
The goal was Kyrou’s sixth of the season, which tied him with Neighbours for the team lead.
Taking advantage immediately
The Blues scored just 11 seconds into the game, scoring when Sharks goaltender Yaroslav Askarov turned the puck over along the boards in his own zone, allowing Radek Faksa to set up Walker at the net front for a redirection. It was Askarov’s first touch with the Sharks, as he was making his San Jose debut after getting traded from Nashville over the summer.
Faksa initially won the opening faceoff to Joseph, whose pass to Alexey Toropchenko gained the red line, and Toropchenko installed the puck deep for Askarov to misplay. For Walker, it was his third goal of the season, and Faksa had the primary assist on the past two of them.
Faksa had an involved opening 20 minutes, as he went a perfect 6 for 6 on faceoffs and was also called for hooking at 7:21 of the first period. Faksa’s penalty gave the Sharks 41 seconds of a 5-on-3 (the Blues were already killing Zack Bolduc’s interference infraction), but St. Louis got through the two-man advantage.
San Jose, though, scored after Bolduc exited the box, as Wennberg’s power-play goal on the edge of the crease tied the game at 1. Wennberg scored when Mikael Granlund carried the puck behind the net and found Wennberg before Ryan Suter should shift his coverage from the flank to the side of the goal.
The Blues finished the first period with 15 shots on goal. It was the second-most shots in a period this season for St. Louis. The most was the first period on Oct. 10, when the Blues had 22 shots in ... San Jose.
Blues public address announcer Tom Calhoun celebrated his 1,700th straight home game on Thursday night at Enterprise Center. Calhoun was recognized during a television timeout in the first period for his streak.
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