Saturday’s game against Detroit ended just 19 seconds into overtime when Reilly Smith attempted a blind behind-the-back pass in front of Malcolm Subban. Last night, Subban picked up right where Smith left off with his own blind behind-the-back pass. That one was picked off by Zach Sanford, who was behind the net. Seconds later, Sanford dished it off to Ivan Barbashev, who scored the first goal of the game with only 1:19 left in a scoreless first period.
Here’s the link to the video of that play.
Goals scored late in a period can and usually do change the momentum of a game. The first was a tight-checking period with very little open ice. So any mistakes would be costly and that’s exactly what happened in last night’s game, in which the St. Louis Blues beat the VGK 3-1 and continued their impressive results since January: a record of 26-9-4.
The VGK’s failure to achieve a point in this game delayed the clinching of a playoff spot. What makes this loss sting even more is that the San Jose Sharks lost again at home last night to the same Detroit team that came into T-Mobile on Sunday. Actually, San Jose has lost six games in a row, four on their home ice — a Golden opportunity, which has been wasted. The Knights trail San Jose by 5 points with 6 games left in the season for both teams. Not impossible to overcome, but in these last two games, three points disappeared.
With this win, St. Louis is now the second Western Conference team to sweep a season series from the VGK. The Minnesota Wild swept the Knights in the 2017-2018 season.
The VGK, who scored 18 goals in just three games last week, have scored a mere three goals in their last two games. William Karlsson scored the only goal they were able to get by Jordan Binnington, the rookie goaltender who’s been sensational, with a record of 21-4-1 in his 26 starts this season, along with 5 shutouts, a 1.80 GAA, and a .930 save percentage. He’s been an integral part of the Blues’ recent success after the team’s dismal start of the season and the firing of their coach in November.
Karlsson’s goal was his 23rd of the season and it was on the power play, his seventh PPG, just one shy of his career high of the eight he scored in the 2017-18 season. The goal tied the game at 1-1 and provided a glimmer of hope for the team. But that was it for offensive production.
Coach Gallant juggled the lines to try to jump start the team. He dropped (or moved up, depending on which you think is the number-one line) Reilly Smith, who has been the hottest VGK with 13 points in March, to play with Stastny and Tuch, then moved Mark Stone to play with Karlsson and Marchessault. He even moved Eakin to center a line with Reaves and Carrier.
But another late goal in the second period by Ryan O’Reilly sent the Blues into the third period with a 2-1 lead that they would not surrender. Even with Gallant’s line juggling, the Knights couldn’t muster any goals beyond the lone PPG scored by Karlsson.
The two late goals were back-breakers. The game was fairly even with both teams winning 50% of all faceoffs. The shots were 25-22 in favor of Vegas and the hits were 21-19 in favor of Vegas. There were only two power-play chances in the entire game; St. Louis didn’t score on their only PP after William Carrier was assessed a penalty for a hit from behind.
Fleury wasn’t in the lineup, but according to the official VGK roster, Fleury and Subban are listed as their two goaltenders. So we can expect to see the Flower back in uniform and possibly back in the net tomorrow night against Colorado.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Jordan Binnington (24 saves on 25 shots), Zach Stanford (1 goal, 1 assist), William Karlsson (1 PPG and 3 takeaways, along with Alex Tuch who also had 3).
The next game is tomorrow against Colorado at 7 p.m.
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