Observations From Blues' 3-2 OT Win Vs. Oilers

ST. LOUIS – And so it continues. Haven’t we seen this movie script before?

As a matter of fact, we saw it last year when the St. Louis Blues made a push to gain entry into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It’s still premature to say things will play out the same way, but the Blues are giving a whole new meaning to ‘March Madness.’

They continued their winning ways, this time rallying from a two-goal deficit and earning their seventh win in nine games (7-1-1) since the Olympic break and running their point streak to seven games (6-0-1) when Robert Thomas found the net with nine seconds left in overtime of a 3-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Enterprise Center on Friday.

The Blues (27-29-10) now sit five points out of a wild card in the Western Conference with their second win in as many nights after downing the Eastern Conference-leading Carolina Hurricanes, 3-1 on Thursday in Raleigh, N.C.

Not only did the Blues, who got a goal and an assist from Cam Fowler and a goal from Pius Suter, rally from down two goals, they did it in the third period after Connor McDavid put the Oilers (32-26-9) ahead midway through.

“It was fun. It wasn’t exactly the way that we drew it up, but I’m proud of our guys,” Fowler said. “We continue to fight against a really good team that needed the points and was desperate and we just hung in there, got a couple goals and had a big shot by ‘Tommer’ there in overtime to seal the deal. Just an overall good effort by everyone staying in the game and staying in the fight.”

Blues coach Jim Montgomery, whose Blues are 18-2-2 the past two seasons in the month of March, noticed that it’s that time of year.

“It’s the month of March,” he said. “Either we’ve got a bunch of Irish guys and they love the month of March, they love March Madness or spring break. I don’t know. I don’t know what our combined winning percentage is combined the last two Marches but it’s pretty phenomenal.”

Joel Hofer contined his sorcery with another stellar outing with 35 saves.

Here are Friday’s takeaways:

* First period had some pace to it – Each team played on Thursday, so one could understand if the teams would perhaps go through the motions a little bit and feel each other out.

But that’s not the case.

There was some pace to it, with each team having its share of odd-man rushes.

Goaltending was up to the challenge despite the shot clock only being 7-6 in favor of the Oilers.

* Oilers owned the second – For one, the Blues never got into an offensive flow and going 19:46 without a shot on goal was evident why.

When Dylan Holloway put a shot on goal with 6:45 left in the opening period, the Blues were stuck on six shots until Jordan Kyrou’s slot shot with 6:59 to play.

Edmonton, which was embarrassed on Friday in Dallas, losing 7-2, had the puck on a string and finally cracked Hofer when former Blue Kasperi Kapanen broke the barrier when he converted from the slot a gorgeous Leon Draisaitl pass at 15:41:

The Blues made a bit of a push there but the Oilers owned the period.

“We didn’t touch the puck the whole second period, it felt like,” Thomas said. “Maybe start with that, but we came out in the first, they had a couple rush chances early and then we felt like we started to get some good looks and some good time in the O-zone, so we just had to get back to that. Even when they go up 2-0, that was our focus, and that was the way we were able to climb back into it.”

* Penalty kill continues to be key – The Oilers are the last team, with the likes of McDavid and Draisaitl, you want to put on the power play; it’s the top-ranked PP at 32.1 percent. And with the Blues’ PK ranked 29th at 75 percent, you’re asking for trouble.

But the Blues were 3-for-3 in kills, marking the fifth time in six games they were spotless killing penalties and are 16-for-18 in those games, with the only blip being the two goals the New York Islanders scored on Tuesday in the third period.

The kills kept the Blues in the game, and in fact, they had two shorthanded breakaway chances by Colton Parayko and Alexey Toropchenko that they didn’t convert on – Parayko hit the cross bar behind Connor Ingram – that could have produced momentum.

“Smart sticks, running straight lines,” Montgomery said. “Our PK forecheck up ice has been patient and steering people to the outside. We’re never giving cross-ice passes or in the middle of the ice and our goaltenders have been really good.”

* Theo Lindstein helped fuel a spark, along with Jonatan Berggren – Playing in his third NHL game, imagine being Theo Lindstein, looking up and seeing arguably the greatest player in the world (Connor McDavid) coming at you like a freight train.

What was Lindstein going to do? I’d be shaking in my skates too, and McDavid saw his prey and made Lindstein pay by backing him in, then snapping off a shot from the high slot past Hofer at 9:56 of the third period and making it 2-0:

The Blues had a semblance of a push, but with the way things transpired in the second period, that almost felt like a dagger goal.

But Lindstein came right back, made a strong read by pinching in on a chipped puck into the corner, got a stick on it that Berggren could recover, get below the goal line and find Suter in the low slot to get the Blues back within one at 2-1 at 12:22:

“What a play by Berggren on the Suter goal,” Montgomery said. ‘I think that really gave us the momentum that we could (win).

“(Lindstein’s) come up and he’s played with a lot of purpose, and he’s been aggressive. It’s been nice to see him play to his strengths and we’re seeing the kind of player he can become. I know it’s just three games in, but it’s been a good three games.”

* Face-off win leads to tying goal – With Robert Thomas still not able to take draws after taking a puck off his right pinkie finger Tuesday, face-offs were a challenge against the Oilers, although you wouldn’t have known it by seeing McDavid going 0-for-7.

But it was late in the game and Montgomery needed to try something different, so he had Oskar Sundqvist, who took only four draws (2-for-4) for the game, won a big one from the right circle back to Fowler, who grabbed it, and snapped a shot off the near post and past Ingram’s left shoulder at 16:14 to tie the game 2-2:

“I put ‘Sunny’ out for maybe a second face-off all night and he wins it clean and we’ve got it tied up because we were struggling to win (face-offs), so I just tried a different center to win face-offs,” Montgomery said.

* Blues needed their skating legs – Look, let’s face it, Thursday was a hard game for the Blues, winning in Carolina.

And playing their third game in four nights, with travel sandwiched in between home games, was not an easy task.

The Blues looked lifeless in the second period, and the Oilers were skating them to death. Something had to change, and it did.

“The second period wasn’t really good at all,” Fowler said. “They kind of dictated the pace of the play there and spent most of the period in our own end, so we came in here just wanted to regroup a little bit, just wanted to get back to what had given us some success in previous games. It still took a little while in the third and sometimes when you play desperate and you’re down a couple, you play a little bit more aggressively and you’re able to gain some more chances and I think that was the case tonight.”

* Blues goaltending leading the way – It’s been by committee, as Thomas stated afterwards, but what the Blues are getting from Hofer and Jordan Binnington, who was the No. 1 star against the Hurricanes, is leading the way.

The goaltending has been so good, the Blues are either winning games by locking them down when they gain the lead, or they’re able to come back like the last two nights when the goalies are giving them the chance.

“They give us a chance night in, night out, both of them to win hockey games,” Fowler said. “’Binner’, he was unbelievable last night in Carolina and ‘Hof’ was amazing tonight. We need to take a look at things and make life easier on them, but they’re a huge part of this and they’re as big a part of the team as anybody else. When they’re playing like that, it’s really difficult for other teams to gain momentum. We have tremendous confidence in both of those guys any time that they suit up for us.”

The numbers since the break speak for themselves:

* Fresh legs helped fuel the fire – Montgomery made three changes to the lineup anticipating that some fresher legs would be needed, especially having to play an overtime game on Tuesday and a tough order on Thursday.

He inserted Berggren, Sundqvist and defenseman Justin Holl in for Dalibor Dvorsky, Nathan Walker and Tyler Tucker.

It’s part of the dynamic depth that’s on display at the moment.

Holl played 16:33, Berggren was at 12:36 with the assist, and Sundqvist was at 13:11, also with an assist.

“It’s nice to have (depth), because we threw three bodies in because we knew we were going to be tired and that they could give us juice,” Montgomery said. ‘Berggren gave us juice, Sunny gave us juice. So did Holl. Holl played a good game. He was smart back there, he was skating, defended well. I’m really happy that we could roll in three fresh bodies.”

* Thomas calls game – The Oilers are no fun to go against 3-on-3, not when they can throw McDavid, Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard on the ice at any given moment.

And it was Draisaitl that nearly ended it when McDavid fed him for a shot off the post, and Holloway swatting the puck out of danger from the crease, but gaining that extra point has been tough sledding for the Blues most of the season.

But with the clock winding down and possession, Kyrou takes the puck to the net and gets his shot stopped for Thomas, who fed Fowler, and he gave the puck back to Thomas curling back to the inner edge of the left circle before beating Ingram with McDavid defending:

“We’re obviously feeling good,” Thomas said. “We’re playing confident and we’re really using our strengths. Our ‘D’ are really skating, they’re joining the rush, they’re creating a lot. They’re beating the first forechecker in and that’s opening up all of us forwards. We’re just clicking right now and really confident and coming in and winning every game.

“I think the biggest thing is we’re playing to our strengths. That’s what made us a good team, that’s what’s making us a good team now. When we get that puck and we’re skating, our ‘D’ are active, we’re a tough team to beat and to get the puck from. I feel like we’re doing a good job of that.”

And with the playoffs now in the line of vision, Thomas said, “We’re right there.”

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