The St. Louis Blues kicked off their last home game on Thursday night (Nov. 21) against the San Jose Sharks before going on a three-game road trip in New York/New Jersey. Before heading into this game, the Blues were 1-0 in the season series against the Sharks, winning the first game in a 5-4 overtime victory on Oct. 10 in San Jose. With forward Robert Thomas returning from a fractured ankle injury in their last match with the Minnesota Wild on Nov. 19, the Blues looked to see if their team could play some winning hockey.
After battling through three periods, overtime, and a shootout, the Blues defeated the Sharks 3-2, giving them a record of 9-11-1 in the standings.
Game Recap
First Period
Just 11 seconds into the first period, the Blues started the game with a goal as forward Radek Faksa intercepted a dumped puck from Sharks goaltender Yaroslav Askarov and passed it to a wide-open Nathan Walker, who scored on a shot in front of the net for his third goal of the season.
Related: After Back & Forth Efforts, Wild Secure 4-2 Win Over Blues
However, Faksa would take a two-minute minor penalty for hooking, and the Sharks took advantage of it on the power play as forwards Mikael Granlund and Macklin Celebrini set up a behind-the-net pass for forward Alexander Wennberg to tie the game 1-1. Despite being tied with the Sharks, the Blues outshot them 15-7 by the end of the first period.
Second Period
Things started to look up again for the Blues in the second period. The Blues’ top line of Pavel Buchnevich, Thomas, and Jordan Kyrou pushed for another lead. Pierre-Olivier Joseph, who got a feed from Thomas, skated around the side of the boards and made a direct pass to the front of the net. Jordan Kyrou was able to tip in the shot through traffic for his sixth of the season, making it 2-1.
Both teams did not take many shots, ending the second tied 6-6; however, the general shot total favored the Blues 21-13.
Third Period
As the game entered the final five minutes, the Sharks pulled Askarov to get the man advantage and nearly allowed Buchnevich and Thomas to score on the empty net, but they both missed. In miracle fashion, with 10 seconds left in the third period, the Sharks wouldn’t you know it, Wennberg gets his second goal of the game with a wrist shot from the right side of the offensive zone; it was Granlund with the primary assist and Celebrini with the secondary assist.
With the game tied 2-2, the Blues and Sharks would go into overtime for the second time in the season series as both teams were tied again in shots at 9-9, and the Blues still led the way for the total game shots of 30-22.
Overtime
Overtime would not work out for both teams as they could not score despite the Sharks finishing overtime with a 2-1 shot total; however, the Blues had one close chance with a shot from Colton Parayko. That said, the Blues and Sharks moved on to the shootout to see who could close out the game victorious.
Shootout
Blues captain Brayden Schenn opened the shootout with a backhand miss going wide right, and the Sharks’ Granlund also missed the first attempt for his team as Binnington shut him down. Both teams missed their next two chances, with Kyrou missing for the Blues and Celebrini missing for the Sharks. It wasn’t until the Blues’ third chance that Jake Neighbours scored the only goal in the shootout as Binnington closed the door on William Eklund to seal the deal and increase the season series against the Sharks to 2-0.
The Blues finished the game with a shot total of 31-24, and Binnington picked up his 151st win with the Blues, tying Mike Liut for first on the Blues’ all-time goaltending wins list. He also picked up the game’s first star, followed by Neighbours with the second star, and Wennberg as the third star.
They will now focus on their next three road games against the New York Islanders (Nov. 23), New York Rangers (Nov. 25), and New Jersey Devils (Nov. 27). The Blues and Sharks will meet again in St. Louis on Dec. 12 for their final game of the season series.
