SALT LAKE CITY — Sunday night offered the Blues a chance at redemption, and not in a way they would have picked for themselves.
In the third period of a 2-1 Blues win of the Utah Hockey Club at the Delta Center, another obstacle presented itself to St. Louis. Utah defenseman Michael Kesselring tied the game about 3½ minutes into the period, forcing a one-goal Blues lead to evaporate and thrusting St. Louis back into a tie game on the road.
This is the type of obstacle the Blues have tripped over in recent games as they carried a four-game losing streak into Sunday night. In the previous four games, once a team scored one goal, a second was on the way. Colorado turned one into five. Vancouver scored its first goal, then followed it with two more. Dallas and Vegas each scored a second goal within 10 minutes of their first goal.
So Utah, despite being outplayed for much of the game by the Blues, put themselves in a position to bury St. Louis and dish out a fifth straight loss.
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But the Blues pushed back this time.
The Blues had four of the next six shots on goal, including Jordan Kyrou’s eventual game-winning goal less than four minutes after Kesselring tied the game for Utah.
“I really liked our response right away,†Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “You could tell the bench, as soon as we got scored against, there was no hanging our heads. There was a lot of voices talking, a lot of energy on the bench, which is what you want when you respond.â€
Kyrou’s goal backed Alexandre Texier’s tally in the first period, as Jordan Binnington made 24 saves. Binnington made nine saves in the third period and was the beneficiary of a post hit by Jack McBain’s tip with six seconds remaining in the game as Utah’s extra-attacker effort fell short.
The win was the Blues’ first since Jan. 20 in Vegas and first one in regulation since Jan. 16 against Calgary.
“All the way from the start, all the way to the end, we played hard, we played aggressive, we played fast, we played with the puck,†Kyrou said. “We weren’t just throwing it away.â€
The Blues set the tone in the first period, outshooting Utah 15-6 and carrying a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. It was the first time since Jan. 16 that the Blues did not allow a first-period goal, and the plus-9 shot margin was the largest in the first period since a Dec. 29 game against Buffalo.
During their four-game losing streak, the Blues were outscored 10-1 in the first period.
“When you’re on a four-game losing streak, you don’t want to stay in it,†Blues forward Mathieu Joseph said. “I thought the mentality was great tonight, from the feeling in the warmup, even just going out for the game. The boys, I thought, were ready to play from the start.â€
Texier scored when Radek Faksa dropped a pass for him in the left circle, which followed Alexey Toropchenko’s centering pass to Faksa. Earlier in the play, Colton Parayko kept the play alive by jumping into the play to disrupt Lawson Crouse’s attempted exit.
Kesselring’s goal came off a lost faceoff in the Blues zone, and his slap shot evaded Liam O’Brien in the slot and dented the post on its way past Binnington. Kesselring continued to haunt the Blues with his third goal of the season against St. Louis, and the Utah crowd received a jolt.
The Blues absorbed the energy on their bench instead of being struck down by it.
“I think there was no panic on our bench,†Texier said. “We were pretty calm, and it was great to see. We knew that was our game. We played really well from the first shift.â€
Montgomery: “Energy, people being vocal, people supporting each other. Just being mentally sharp and thinking about what’s next, not what just happened.â€
Kyrou, Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich handled the rest. Buchnevich helped win a battle in the corner for possession of the puck, cycled it with the two Blues defensemen, then poked it to Thomas behind the Utah net. Almost in one motion, Thomas collected the puck off the boards and then found a cutting Kyrou below the right dot.
“It’s kind of just old chemistry,†Kyrou said. “I kind of know when he’s looking, where he’s looking, so I just try to jump in those holes.â€
The three players — reunited on the top line — combined for nine of the Blues’ 29 shots on goal. During the 12:57 the line was on the ice at five on five, the Blues outshot Utah 9-4 and had a 4-2 edge in high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“I thought that line was pretty dominant tonight,†Montgomery said. “I thought they had a lot of chances. They had some shifts where they were in the D-zone. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were matching the (Alexander) Kerfoot, (Clayton) Keller line against us. You’re going to have to hold water against them sometimes. They’re a real good line, and I thought they did that.â€
The good feelings from Sunday were necessary for a Blues club that entered Sunday seven points out of a playoff spot (with two more games played than Calgary). But they will disappear quickly if the Blues fail to carry some momentum into their final three games before the 4 Nations Face-Off.
That begins Tuesday against Edmonton at Enterprise Center.
“We snapped a streak where we weren’t playing well,†Montgomery said. “Now, we’ve got to build on this and get another game like this with the same kind of effort, same kind of compete and same kind of playing hard for each other.â€
