ST. LOUIS – The special teams have not been kind to the St. Louis Blues lately, and frankly, throughout the season.
A chance at redemption was on the table against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions for the Blues, who were looking for good vibes to have a chance.
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Those good vibes came from Jimmy Snuggerud, who scored a power-play goal with nine seconds remaining to give the Blues a dramatic 5-4 win over the Florida Panthers at the Enterprise Center on Thursday.
Snuggerud received a quick one-touch pass from Pavel Buchnevich in the left circle and slotted a one-timer into the top of the net past Panthers goaltender Daniil Tarasov to help the Blues (20-25-9) end a five-game losing streak (0-4-1).
“I think we wore them down in the zone for a while, so some guys were tired on the ice,” Snuggerud said. “’Rouzy’ (Jordan Kyrou) and ‘Buchy’ made great passes throughout the power play, but on the last seam play I said to myself, ‘Just put it on the left side of the net,’ and luckily the ball went in. It was a great play.”
Kyrou had a goal and two assists, and Justin Faulk and Buchnevich each had two assists for the Blues. Jake Neighbors, Oskar Sundqvist and Jonatan Berggren also scored for the Blues, who got 17 saves from Joel Hofer.
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“It’s great to be on this side,” Faulk said. “Tonight was tough. It was a challenge for sure, losing a point, even then giving up 4-2 and letting them tie. So it was an effort.
“We knew going into the third period, it wasn’t going to be any different; the third period was going to be tough against these guys. They’re playing a tough game. To be rewarded at the end is great, because obviously we’ve done the opposite here a few times recently, but I think more importantly, to be rewarded, we think we’re doing a lot of work. We think the guys are working hard. We don’t think we end up like we did in the Dallas game, right, down three at the end of the second.
Let’s look at the observations of the game:
* Special teams ultimately make the difference – Here’s the bad: the Blues really weren’t good on the penalty kill early on. It was the fifth time in the last seven games that they had allowed multiple power play goals when Sam Reinhart scored one in the first period to tie the game 2-2 and Blues killer Matthew Tkachuk scored one late in the second period to erase a 4-2 Blues lead that tied the game 4-4.
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It was time for this moment.
It came in the third period when Nick Bjugstad was whistled for a double minor on Evan Rodrigues, who was playing in his 600th NHL game.
Would the Blues give in again or would murder finally do its job.
Not only did they kill the entire four minutes, but the Panthers, who are 22nd with the power play, didn’t make a single shot.
“I feel like we were good from start to finish on that one,” Sundqvist said in his first game since Jan. 18 against the Edmonton Oilers. “I don’t think we gave them much. After killing him you hear the crowd and it definitely gives you an extra boost. It was a good dynamic for us.
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The Blues finished 5-for-7 shorthanded.
Blues coach Jim Montgomery said: “We had already given up two power play goals, so the effort from our goal killers was great. The response from our fans was great and it gave us some life.”
It continued, and the Blues, who are 29th in PK, used it to their advantage with their 25th power play, which was initially a 4-on-3 for 40 seconds of accidental minors when Hofer and Tkachuk found themselves in a scrum behind the net, and former Blues defenseman Niko Mikkola was called for goaltender interference with 1:54 to play.
It looked like the Blues were going to run out of time, and they didn’t put a puck on net even though the fans were begging them to do so. They worked patiently and that patience paid off this time when Kyrou, who had initially blocked a one-timer, passed to Buchnevich, who connected a cross-court pass to Snuggerud in the left circle and did the rest:
It was a penalty-filled game with referees Liam Maaskant and Jake Brenk blowing their whistles into oblivion with 18 penalties totaling 44 minutes.
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“We haven’t had many like that,” Faulk said. “Most of our games are pretty weak in terms of penalties. We don’t have a lot of power plays, I don’t think we take a lot of penalties either. It’s really weird, not a lot of fluidity there for a while, even there until the end with the four minutes and then the penalty. It’s good to come out with that, the last minute goal on our side is a lot better than the other side. It was a good feeling here after that.
“…Even during the game tonight, we were frustrated again with our special teams, not getting it done on both ends. We knew we had a chance to take over in the third and mainly start with the penalty kill. Just kill, be aggressive, try to gain momentum, not let them take control of the game at that point. That was huge. I think we gained momentum and we gained momentum. scale at the right time.
With 12 power plays combined, it was a tough game to get into any type of rhythm.
“It’s crazy. We all felt like you were on the power play or shorthanded the whole game,” Sundqvist said. “It’s tough, especially for guys who don’t play on the power play or penalty kill. You’re sitting there and you can sit there for 10 minutes. It’s super tough for those guys. I think we did a great job of coming back and playing really well at 5-on-5. I think I was thinking on the bench at the end of the second period, ‘I don’t think I had a lot of turnovers with my teammates at 5-on-5.’ It’s really a crazy match but I’m happy to get a victory.
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* First period turnaround – The Panthers, who have won three in a row on the road, are a team that, when they corner you in the D zone successfully, it is difficult to escape. That was the trend when Florida took the territorial advantage early, and when AJ Greer made it 1-0 at 3:12 of the game on a coverage error, it was a trend the Blues needed to break out of.
But then there were odd rushes, and with the ability to get out of the D-zone with pucks, it allowed the Blues to overcome the aggression of not only Florida’s forecheckers, but also their pinch defenders.
That’s how Neighbors tied the game 1-1 at 4:46 on a puck below the D-zone goal line to Kyrou, who hit a puck that carried defenseman Gustav Forsling to Buchnevich, who hit Neighbors across the neutral zone for a breakaway, and he beat Tarasov high on the glove side:
And when Kyrou made it 2-1 at 7:51, it came on a precise read from Philip Broberg, who intercepted Carter Verhaeghe’s cross-ice pass in the neutral zone, worked his way to the left side before finding Kyrou in the left circle. His quick shot also found a home on the glove side:
And even at 4-on-4, Faulk used his strength to fend off a few would-be Panthers players before throwing a backhand pass to Berggren for a one-timer from the right circle at 14:27 to regain a 3-2 lead in a wild opening 20 minutes:
“I thought our wall play in the first half was really good,” Montgomery said. “When you play Florida, they’re going to lock you down. If you win those wall battles and you’re off the wall, you can have odd man rushes and we had a couple odd man rushes that led to goals and we almost had another one at the end of the period. We had a 2-on-1 that was another play only if you can make it against them. It’s not easy because they’re the best in the league to do it. You have odd man rushes and then you have to take advantage of them.
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* Neighbors, Kyrou and Sundqvist all made match-time decisions and scored – When Sundqvist scored 41 seconds into the second period, a goal Tarasov would certainly like back, to make it 4-2, he gave up a goal to three players that Montgomery called game-time decisions after the morning skate.
All three had skated, and it was a question of who would feel good after that.
Well, Sundqvist said he knew he’d be playing Wednesday, to which Montgomery joked: “‘Sunny’ found his dipsy-doodle of Guy Lafleur right in the middle and twisted his right wrist in the corner, huh? How many times have you seen that from him.”
“First of all, ‘Sunny’ should have told me (he knew he was playing on Wednesday). That would have been good. I’m glad he told you that.
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“The other two, it was going to be how they felt this morning because it was very positive about how they reacted the day after the game. We were very happy with how they both felt. I put it 50/50 for both of them. It was great. As soon as they took morning practice and I had already met you, they came in and (said), ‘We’re playing. We are players.”
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