NHL
Game 15: St. Louis Blues vs. Minnesota Wild Happens For the Second Time in Four Games
Sunday Afternoon: St. Louis Blues vs. Minnesota Wild – The St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild play their second meeting of the year. The first time out the Wild laid the whooping on St. Louis. This time out, the Blues look to even up the season series and take a win in a match up against a Central Division opponent.
First Period
After some great saves at both ends of the ice this period, the Blues rush up the ice with 1:06 to go. Zach Sanford receives a pass at center ice and carries the puck into the offensive zone. Sanford cuts back and looks to pass, but the puck was knocked away and back to him. Oskar Sundqvist skates to the players at the wall and picks the puck out of the mess of legs. He spins it to Ivan Barbashev and skates towards the net. Barbashev feeds a beautiful saucer pass over the stick of a sliding Wild defensman. Sundqvist bats it home for a BLUUUEESSS GOAL 19:01 into the game.
STL Goal: Oskar Sundqvist (3) Assisted By: Ivan Barbashev (3) 1-0 Blues
Second Period
Not even two minutes in, Minnesota has two guys in the offensive zone. Zach Parise catches a puck that was hit by Jonas Brodin. Parise sets it down and delivers a no look behind the back pass to Nino Niederreiter who takes a wrist shot from way out. Chad Johnson never saw the puck as it hits the post and goes right to Zach Parise. Johnson slides over and Parise does a spin and backhands the puck into the net for the game tying goal.
MIN Goal: Zach Parise (7) Assisted By: Nino Niederreiter (7) and Jonas Brodin (2) 1-1 Tie
25 seconds later the Wild are coming in again. Joel Eriksson Ek does a great spin move to protect the puck then gives it to Jordan Greenway. He skates down the far wing and wrips a shot off of Chad Johnson’s left arm. The rebound finds Eriksson Ek who puts it into the wide open net to give Minnesota the lead.
MIN Goal: Joel Eriksson Ek (1) Assisted By: Jordan Greenway (4) and Charlie Coyle (7) 2-1 Wild
After the second Wild goal, the Blues fell back to their old ways of not talking, not making clean passes and failing to clear the puck. The defense fell off until Alex Pietrangelo tied it.
Coming up to the midway point of the game, Ryan O’Reilly has the puck to the left of his goalie. He looks up and feeds Jaden Schwartz on the left wing. Schwartz skate up the ice and throws the puck to a wide open Alex Pietrangelo who receives the pass in the zone and skates five yards. At the top of the far face-off circle, Pietrangelo winds up and slaps a rocket past Devan Dubnyk for a game tying BLUUUEESSS GOAL. This goal extends O’Reilly’s point streak to 10 games.
STL Goal: Alex Pietrangelo (3) Assisted By: Jaden Schwartz (5) and Ryan O’Reilly (13) 2-2 Tie
Third Period
Of all the times to have a defenseive miscue, the Blues always choose late in the third period. Every time.
The Wild have the puck on the right wing side of the ice. Vince Dunn swats at the puck but misses it. Zach Sanford comes in to get the puck out but can not pick it up. Erik Staal sends a blind back hand pass to open ice in the slot. The puck hits Sanford’s stick and slides to the slot. Colton Parayko swings to send the puck down the ice but misses. Mikael Granlund collects it and snaps a shot into the net for the game winning goal.
MIN Goal: Mikael Granlund (10) Assisted By: Jason Zucker (8) 3-2 Wild
Final: Minnesota 3 – St. Louis 2
As stated above, it was a late third period defensive error that cost the Blues again. The way the defense plays when they are behind is outrageously bad. The Blues fall to 6-6-3 and remain tied for last place in the Central Division. Minnesota improves to 11-4-2 and sit in second place behind the Nashville Predators.
Remaining games between St. Louis and Minnesota
- St. Louis Blues vs. Minnesota Wild (in Minnesota) on 2/17
- St. Louis Blues vs. Minnesota Wild (in Minnesota) on 2/24
Thoughts
- The team played a good 61 minutes but when Minnesota applied pressure, it was too much and the team cracked from the defense out. Mike Yeo called this game a disappointment.
- The only real silver lining of the day is Ryan O’Reilly extending his career high point streak to 10 games.
- The seven game home stand ended after this game. The Blues finished with a record of 4-3 which is not as good looking as a 5-2 record but it is what it is. The home stretch began with a 7-4 loss to Columbus, followed by two wins and a loss to Minnesota (5-1), two more wins, and finally a loss to Minnesota again.
- Against Central Division opponents this year, The Blues are 1-3-3. Dating back to last season, of the last 18 games against the Central the Blues have just 3 wins, all against Chicago. The Blues play Chicago on Wednesday.
What’s Ahead?
The St. Louis Blues (6-6-3) head to Chicago for a 7:00 game against the Chicago Blackhawks (6-8-4) on Wednesday Night Hockey (11/14). The game can be found on NBCSN.
Other Blues News
- Blues goaltending prospect Luke Opilka has retired from professional hockey. Following two hip surgeries, Opilka announced, on Monday (11/12), that he would be stepping away from professional hockey. Luke’s diagnoses of hip dysplasia came while playing for the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League.
- Brayden Schenn will not be in the lineup for Wednesday’s game against the Blackhawks. According to Lou Korac, Schenn has an appointment today (11/13) to get his injury checked out.
- Lou Korac also tweeted that Colton Parayko, who missed practice because of a personal issue, will play Wednesday.
Social Media
Follow Jared on Twitter: @jared_pettus_00
Photo Credit
Photo courtesy of Emily
