Blues Vs. Panthers Recap

Blues Forwards

Brayden Schenn - Ryan O’Reilly - Vladimir Tarasenko

Jaden Schwartz - Tyler Bozak - Alexander Steen

Zach Sanford - Oskar Sundqvist - Pat Maroon

Mackenzie MacEachern - Ivan Barbashev - Robert Thomas

Blues Defense

Carl Gunnarsson - Alex Pietrangelo

Jay Bouwmeester - Colton Parayko

Vince Dunn - Joel Edmundson

Starting Goalie

Jordan Binnington

Game Highlights:

First period -

The Blues start to the game was iffy at best. It took them almost ten minutes to register their first shot on net. Hitting the post was as close as the Blues were going to get to a goal. However, late in the period the Panthers scored the first goal of the game. Jaden Schwartz tripped a guy in red, and last time we checked, you still couldn’t do that. The Panthers power play scored with 1:05 left in the period, and around 30 seconds left on their man advantage. Aaron Ekblad fired a puck toward the net that hit something in front. Henrik Borgstrom swept the loose puck past Binnington to give the Panthers the 1-0 lead after one.

Second Period -

While no goals were scored in the second, the Blues finally looked like they got their legs under them. The Blues had five shots total and the aforementioned post in the first. In the second they doubled their total with 10 shots on net.

Third Period -

Sometimes if the Blues didn’t have bad luck, they wouldn’t have any luck at all. The Panthers second power play goal of the game came off of Pietrangelo’s face. It bounced off Petro’s face to Mike Hoffman. Hoffman shoved the puck in front to a waiting Aleksander Barkov. Barkov lifted the puck into the net and gave the Panthers a 2-0 advantage.

Before the All Star break the slow start and the two goal advantage might have been enough to bury this team. Not today Satan. The Blues finally got on the board thanks to a wrap around chance from Colton Parayko. Parayko somehow got the puck past Florida starter James Reimer to cut the deficit to one.

The Blues scored their second goal of the night just moments later. Ryan O’Reilly won a puck battle in front of the net. The puck was loose around in front of the net. O’Reilly finally found the free puck and shot it into the net extending his point streak to eight games.

The Blues score their third (and game winning goal) of the night thanks to a Panthers turnover. Vince Dunn collected the loose puck and skated around Ekblad like he was a chained down trash can. Dunn then shoots the puck on goal and scored. Comeback complete.

The Blues win 3-2 in Sunrise. Binnington improved to 7-1-1 on the year. With the win the Blues have crawled to within a point of the second wild card with three games in hand. They are only four back of the Wild with two games in hand. The Blues have now outshot their last 17 opponents. Blues now go to Tampa with a date Thursday against the Lightning.

Shots - 34 to 24 in favor of the Blues

Goals - STL: Colton Parayko (9) from Oskar Sundqvist (7); Ryan O’Reilly (20) from Schenn (22) and Tarasenko (18); Vince Dunn (6) was unassisted.

FLA: Henrik Borgstrom (5) from Vatrano (11) and Ekblad (13); Aleksander Barkov (19) from Hoffman (20) and Yandle (33)

From The Twit:

Hey in case you hadn’t heard it’s the dad’s trip! Mr. Bozak was the key to the Blues comeback.

He can’t kick pucks past Blues goaltenders anymore so he’s going to resort to violence.

Narrator: There was not one.

Which is a far cry from what this team was at the beginning of the year.

And Finally...O’Reilly has a nickname...