How a bad skate blade helped the Blues to a 3-2 come-from-behind win over the Jets


By Jeremy Rutherford 4h ago  9
WINNIPEG​ — Jaden​ Schwartz​ was​ walking​ out of the Blues’ locker room, deservedly strutting​ after scoring the greatest​​ goal of his career, when teammate Alexander Steen emerged from an adjoining room. Steen stuck out his hand, Schwartz popped it and locked it with his, and then let out a loud groan.

YESSS!!!

Schwartz was one of two Blues feeling a little redemption after the 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Winnipeg in Game 5 Thursday at Bell MTS Place. He and Brayden Schenn, two players who had yet to show up in the Western Conference quarterfinal, were suddenly the reason the Blues were taking a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series back to St. Louis.

But before we set up the play that made Schwartz the hero of one of the Blues’ most memorable comebacks in playoff history, let’s tell you how the epic evening got to that point. Because before interim coach Craig Berube’s club was celebrating in front of a stunned crowd of 15,321, their rookie goalie was feeling the wrath of those patrons and the visitors were all but assured to be playing for their season in Game 6 on Saturday.

There was the fastest goal scored against the Blues in their playoff history. There was the Jets crowd turning the tables on Jordan Binnington because of his “Do I look nervous?” comment. There was a 2-0 deficit after the Blues were bullied in front of their own net once again. There was a four-minute, double-minor high-sticking penalty on Robert Thomas that could have thwarted any thought of a comeback.

But then there was the timely line changes by Berube, a “save” by Winnipeg’s Kevin Hayes on what would have been his own goal, a debatable delay-of-game penalty on Joel Edmundson, a controversial ruling when the Jets’ net was knocked off its moorings, and a bad skate blade that put the Blues in position to score the game-winning goal with 15 seconds left in regulation.

The bizarre back-and-forth events Thursday will instead give the Blues the chance to close out the series Saturday at Enterprise Center, which won’t be easy considering that through five games we’ve yet to see the home team win a game. But the club will have some odds on its side, with NHL team who have broken a 2-2 series tie with a victory in Game 5 owning a 78.8 percent winning percentage (205-55) in league history.

“We’re just staying with it,” Schwartz said. “We believe in each other, we believe in the system and we work as a team. When the team has success, we know that we all get rewarded. This whole series is so tight. You just never know right now, with the bounces that are happening.”

There was one that went against the Blues right out of the gate Thursday.

Winnipeg, riding the momentum of wins in Games 3 and 4 in St. Louis, won the opening faceoff and got the puck in deep. The Jets’ Brandon Tanev put a shot on net, and the rebound ricocheted to Adam Lowry for a goal just 12 seconds into the game. That was three seconds faster than the previous record for an opening goal allowed by the Blues, according to @STLBlueshistory.


STL Blues History
@STLBlueshistory
 The Goal scored by Winnipeg at the 12 second mark is the fastest Goal the St Louis Blues have allowed in a Playoff game.

Previous was 15 seconds on April 8 1981 vs Pittsburgh Penguins.#stlblues

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That goal sent the crowd into the loud chant of “You look nervous,” which was being directed at Binnington because of a video that went viral after a Blues’ win over Nashville on Feb. 26. After that game, the 25-year-old answered a reporter’s question about his steadiness during a nail-biting game: “Do I look nervous?”

Binnington, no stranger to booing from the Jets fans in this series, laughed it off.

“That’s incredible,” he said of the chant. “You get what you ask for because when I was younger, I really enjoyed that stuff and always wanted it, and now it’s here. It doesn’t feel as good as I thought, but it’s cool, it’s really cool.”

It didn’t feel cool at all when Winnipeg took a 2-0 lead on a goal by Hayes, who skated around Edmundson and scored on the doorstep. It was the Jets’ 11th even-strength goal of the series, and at that point they had scored nine of the last 10 between the teams. And as you can see in this chart from NaturalStatTrick.com, they were getting a lot of their glory in close on Binnington, who was getting no help.



Well, little help from his own teammates, but the netminder did receive some from the Winnipeg forward who had scored the second goal against him.

In the second period, Hayes redirected a shot on Binnington, and as the puck goes through his legs and heads across the line, Blues defenseman Colton Parayko and Hayes fall to the ground. It appears that Hayes can’t control his stick, which winds up catching the puck just in time and swiping it out of the crease.

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“The puck went through (Binnington’s) legs, Parayko lifted my stick and my stick came down and hit it out,” Hayes said.

So instead of 3-0 in favor of the Jets, the score remained 2-0. But then about two minutes after that gaffe, Thomas high-sticked Dmitry Kulikov, drawing blood and sending the Blues’ rookie forward to the penalty box. Somehow, though, the club survived the extended PK, staying within a two-goal deficit.

“Probably the difference in the game,” Berube said. “Guys did a tremendous job, went out there and killed that penalty off. (Ryan) O’Reilly had a great stick on (Mark) Scheifele, twice, broke those plays up. Guys did a good job with their sticks, and that’s what you’ve got to do — break those plays up, those seam passes, and then you have to block shots.”

Then for the second straight game, the Blues went on a power play late in the second period that paid dividends. In Game 4 on Tuesday, it was Winnipeg’s Mathieu Perreault taking a cross-checking penalty with 32 seconds left in the second period, and Vladimir Tarasenko scoring 35 seconds into the third period. In Game 5 on Thursday, it was the Jets’ Jacob Trouba who was whistled for roughing Tarasenko with 21 seconds left in the second period, and O’Reilly scoring 1:29 into the third period.

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The Blues trailed just 2-1 with 18 1/2 minutes left to play.

“That’s twice we started out the period with a power play and ended up getting a goal,” Berube said. “It was a big goal for sure. I think our power play’s been doing a pretty good job, getting some looks. They battled for that goal, which was nice to see. It wasn’t an easy goal, by any means. They were competitive and stayed on it and worked for it and got the goal. And it was a big goal.”

From there, Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler admitted, the Blues “had the momentum the rest of the game.”

Binnington made a big save on Scheifele six minutes into the third period, keeping it a 2-1 game.

“That’s important, right?” he said. “My job is to give the team a chance to win.”

The crowd chants were long gone.

“He doesn’t get nervous,” Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said. “I know everybody jokes about that, but he just keeps on humming, keeps on playing.”

The Blues then had to kill off the Edmundson delay-of-game penalty, which they didn’t believe was warranted because they felt the puck was deflected off O’Reilly’s stick on the way over the glass. But then with the minutes trickling down in regulation, they got a call that went their way.

Oskar Sundqvist was driving the net and was pushed by Winnipeg’s Dustin Byfuglien, causing him to crash into the side of the net and knock it off its moorings. As that’s going on, Sundqvist slides the puck to Schenn, who beats Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck.

“I was trying just to put it into an area, either try to shoot it on goal or try to slide it over there to backside,” Sundqvist said. “I figured someone would be there, either (Schenn) or (Schwartz). It creates a chance for (the Jets’ defense) to start turning their heads and luckily Schenner was there first.”

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 Sundqvist was pushed into the net, Schenn scores while the net is coming off ... if this is ruled a goal, the game is tied.

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It was ruled no goal on the ice, but the replay went to a review. Schenn and the Blues waited patiently.

“The replay is not fun, that’s for sure,” he said. “It can go either way luckily it went in. Good job by (Sundqvist) to beat (Byfuglien) wide and take it to the net. It just popped to me.”

The Situation Room informed the on-ice officials the puck entered the Winnipeg net between the normal position of the goal post, then ruled (63.6) that Byfuglien caused the Winnipeg net to become displaced when he pushed Sunqvist.

“In order to award a goal in this situation, the goal post must have been displaced by the actions of a defending player, the puck must have been shot (or the player must be in the act of shooting) at the goal prior to the goal post being displaced, and it must be determined that the puck would have entered the net between the normal position of the goal posts.”

Hellebuyck was not happy.

“I can’t push off the post,” he said. “I understand we pushed a guy into it but the net’s off the moorings. It should be no goal, but they called it.”

But the goal counted, and the game was tied 2-2 with 6:08 to play.

Here was the blessing for the Blues: Schenn was only on the ice with Sundqvist and Schwartz because Berube had dropped Schenn down and put him at center, moving Sunqvist to right wing. He put David Perron with O’Reilly and Tarasenko.

“I guess you look at our top line not producing 5-on-5 enough and even though I thought the first period was pretty good, they had some zone time and some opportunities, but if you don’t score, you’ve got to change it up a little,” Berube said. “It was a good time to make the change. I thought our team responded well to it. I put Schenn back in the middle and he seemed to have more jump. He was pretty excited about it.”

That would not be the most bizarre set of circumstances, however, regarding who would be on the ice for a big Blues’ goal. With under 30 seconds to play, Schenn had a bad edge on his skate and went to the bench, replaced by Tyler Bozak. Bozak drifted to the slot and then pinched along the boards, where he found the puck.

“It was a great forecheck by the guys,” Bozak said. “I just came off the bench, so tried to get in and help. I saw a couple of guys battling in front, so just tried to get it into that area and hope for the best.”

Schwartz batted the puck out of the air and past Hellebuyck for the go-ahead goal with 15 seconds remaining.

“We were kind of relentless on the puck and (Bozak) came on, he was fresh and he probably knew that there wasn’t much time left,” Schwartz said. “He just threw it on net. I kind of got lucky, it just hit my stick.”

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The goal was the second-latest in regulation in franchise history that won a playoff game, six seconds longer than one by Gino Cavallini on April 22, 1990, against Chicago.

Of the Blues’ 13 goals in this series, it was their ninth in the third period, when they’ve outscored the Jets, 9-4.

Asked if it was the most important of his career, Schwartz replied, “I’ve got to say yes. At this point and time in the series and with that much time left, with the chance to go home and close it out, it’s big. You want to step up and help the team any way that you can. It’s not like you’re not getting chances. When they’re not going in, you’ve got to find other ways to help the team. If you stick with it and have that belief, more times than not it’s going to come around. We have very, very spread out scoring on this team, we get contributions from everyone and everyone seems to be stepping up at different times.”

But here again, the Blues were blessed. “I had a bad edge,” Schenn said. “Bozak is a right-handed shot, so if he doesn’t come on (the ice), that pass never gets made. Pretty wild!”

Pretty wild indeed!