ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Blues looked forward to the opportunity to slay the dragon on Friday night, the hottest team in the NHL going in the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Lightning had bolted their way through 11 straight opponents with a hot knife, and the Blues were next on the agenda and with another win, the Lightning would establish a franchise record.
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The Blues would have none of that, and it took every ounce of energy and they did it in a fashion they had trouble with all season: doing it in overtime and/or a shootout.
But when Jordan Kyrou scored in the second round of the shootout and Joel Hofer was 3-for-3 in saves, including the final one on Nikita Kucherov in the third round, the Blues put an end to the Lightning’s winning streak at 11 with a 3-2 win at Enterprise Center on Friday.
“It feels great,” Kyrou said. “Obviously we haven’t done that all year. It feels good to get that one.”
Jake Neighbours and Nick Bjugstad scored, and Hofer made 34 saves as the Blues (19-21-8) completed a mini two-game homestand winning both against two of the Eastern Conference’s best.
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“We knew it would be a good test, a quick little homestand before a road trip,” Neighbours said. “It was a big point of emphasis for us. Carolina was coming off a back to back, so that game was important and Tampa was on an 11-game win streak coming into tonight. Two big games and guys rose up for the challenge, played a stingy, hard defensive game. Don’t think we had our best tonight by any means, but guys dug in and got it done.”
Let’s look at Friday’s game observations:
* Quick strike first period after not much happening – The ice was tilted for much of the first period toward’s Hofer’s end of the ice.
The Lightning had much of the territorial edge in the first period, and for the Blues, there was a lot of one-and-done. The few times they’d get pucks in and try to attack offensively on the forecheck, it was coming right back out.
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But when Neighbours and Bjugstad struck 30 seconds apart to turn a 0-0 game into a 2-0 lead, it allowed them to dictate things for a stretch of the game.
When Neighbours made it 1-0 at 17:03, it was a fortuitous bounce when Kyrou’s shot from the high slot deflected to Neighbours at the bottom of the right circle, but the Blues were finally able to get to the middle of the ice when Cam Fowler dropped it to Kyrou for the shot and Neighbours finish:
And when the Bjugstad line with Pavel Buchnevich and Jonatan Berggren put a puck in deep and had an effective forecheck, effectively turning it over from Charlie-Edouard D’Astous behind the net and Buchnevich feeding Bjugstad for a high-slot wrister that made it 2-0 at 17:33:
“Part of the way our defense and our systems are built is if teams are keeping the puck that we can keep them to the outside and not allow a lot of high-danger chances,” Neighbours said. “I thought we did a pretty good job of that, especially early in the first period, kind of allowed us to get our legs under us a little bit. Obviously getting a couple goals at the end of the first was big for confidence and mojo going into the second.”
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* Blues were managing game well … until penalties struck, including one bad one – The Blues had gotten close to the midway point of the game holding a two-goal lead against a potent and balanced offense, but when Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker each took a tripping minor, that’s asking for trouble.
Especially Walker, whose careless trip could have been prevented, especially when the Blues were doing an excellent job at killing off the initial minor. Walker had the puck along the wall near the Blues bench, and with the final seconds ticking down on Toropchenko’s penalty, all Walker had to do was dump the puck down below the goal line and the Lightning almost surely would not have had time to score. But instead, he tried to pull the puck around Oliver Bjorkstrand and ended up tripping him, giving the Lightning, which was sixth in the league at 28.6 percent during its 11-game win streak, the chance to get right back in the game.
It wasn’t much time, but the Lightning had 12 seconds of a two-man advantage and needed only eight ticks when Kucherov one-timed a Brandon Hagel no-look pass by Hofer at 9:59 to make it 2-1.
Not only did it put the Lightning back in the game, but it gave Tampa Bay 1:52 of another full man advantage and the Lightning took advantage when Bjorkstrand tied the game 2-2 at 11:01, so feeling like they had firm control of the game, the Blues lost their grip.
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All due to one mishap that could have been avoided.
“Nathan Walker’s an incredible team-first guy who would do anything to win a game,” Montgomery said. “I know he knows that. We don’t have to talk to him about that. He was trying to do a positive thing and it wasn’t the right game management at the time in the second period.”
The Blues didn’t feel like it was time to panic.
“After they tied it, it’s just … that’s Kucherov,” Neighbours said. “That’s that power play. It’s hard to stop even when you know what’s coming. That’s what elite players do, that’s what good power plays do. We knew 5-on-5, we didn’t mind our game. We thought we had a chance and if we could get it back to that and stay with that, we had a good chance.”
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Walker led all skaters with six hits in the game, and he does play with a big heart, but that miscue could have cost the Blues two points. Consider it a lesson learned.
* Hofer being Hofer – Right now, the Blues goalie is playing with a lot of confidence in his game.
The Lightning, like the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, were throwing a lot of rubber at Hofer, and getting bodies to the net.
He made two really good saves on Jake Guentzel in the first period and was able to snap a shot from the point by Max Crozier looking one way and catching it in another with Anthony Cirelli right in his grill.
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“I saw the release,” Hofer said. “It definitely makes it easier.
“I feel good. Just trying to keep building. Even during the good games, trying to take a thing or two and keep working on them and keep building my game. It’s been going good.”
Since Nov. 29, Hofer is 9-4-0 with a league-best 2.06 goals-against average and .929 save percentage.
“He’s playing big in the nets,” Montgomery said. “He’s making tough saves look easy. That gives you a lot of confidence on the bench, especially the players in front of him.”
* More directness in OT – There was a reason why the Blues were 0-6 (0-8 if you count shootouts) in overtime this season. There was no direct play towards the oppositions goal.
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Whether it be passing up shots, not playing north-south, not attacking the net with a purpose, you name it, the Blues were all over it.
They did outshoot Tampa Bay 4-2 in the extra session and had a couple different chances to win it but came up just a little short before Kyrou would strike in the shootout to preserve the win.
“I thought we were more direct offensively, yes,” Montgomery said. ‘I still think we were passing up too many shots, too many turnovers going east-west. When you’re playing these elite teams, they cover the middle of the ice really well, and that led to not as much O-zone time as we would have liked.”
The Blues practiced both 3-on-3 and shootout attempts Thursday in practice and it seemed to pay off, despite the futility amongst themselves on the pracrice ice.
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“Yesterday we worked on it and I thought today, we were attacking,” Kyrou said, who had two terrific chances, one blocked by JJ Moser and missing the net in the final second off a face-off win. “We were not staying back. We were being aggressive shooting the puck more. I thought we looked a lot better in overtime.”
* Making the shootout count for a change – This was only the Blues’ third shootout of the season, and they were 0-for-6 combined in shootout attempts in losses to the Philadelphia Flyers and Vancouver Canucks.
But Kyrou changed all that in the second round when he scored just his fifth career shootout goal (on 22 attempts) in his career, when he stickhandled to Vasilevskiy and flipped a backhand home for his fourth game-winner:
“He’s a big goalie, hard to score on,” Kyrou said of Vasilevskiy. “I just tried to move him as much as I can and raise the puck.”
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Kyrou, who hasn’t scored in 12 games (including 10 since returning from a lower-body injury but does have four assists), finished tied with Jimmy Snuggerud and Justin Faulk with four shots on goal.
“I think this has been four consecutive games where Jordan Kyrou has played his four best consecutive games in a row,” Montgomery said. “His shot-first mentality and the assist on the (No.) 63 goal. He’s trying to shoot pucks, he’s being very aggressive offensively, and I like the way he’s tracking and stripping people from behind right now.”
* Bjugstad’s draws – When Montgomery sent Bjugstad over the boards to start the overtime and take the opening draw, there was a purpose.
The big center won 13 of 19 from the dot (68 percent for the night), at one point being 10 of 12. But Montgomery didn’t care that he lost a few down the stretch.
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The Blues were wanting the puck to begin OT, and they got it off Bjugstad’s face-off win and possession to do what they’d like.
“Based off be was 10-3 after two periods on face-offs,” Montgomery said. “Some nights, you just win all the draws. It’s just the timing’s on. He had one of those nights and he came up with three big wins in overtime.”
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