Blues give up lead but prevail in shootout to beat Knights, 5-4

Matthew DeFranks, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Jan 20, 2025

Published in Hockey

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LAS VEGAS — For 59 1/2 minutes, it looked like Monday afternoon's date with the Vegas Golden Knights was just what the doctor ordered for the St. Louis Blues.

Vegas tied the game with 28.9 seconds left in the third period, setting up Brayden Schenn to score the game-deciding goal for St. Louis in the second round of the shootout in a 5-4 Blues win.

Jack Eichel scored an extra attacker goal with 3:10 left in the third period to draw Vegas within one goal, and Pavel Dorofeyev scored the game-tying goal with 28.9 seconds left in the third to send the game to overtime.

Eichel pushed an attempt wide into a vacant cage on the first shift of overtime that would have won the game for Vegas. Mark Stone had a chance in the final minute to win it for Vegas but missed the net.

The Blues received contributions up and down their lineup as they tried to erase the sour taste of a loss in Utah on Saturday night.

Forwards from three different lines (Brayden Schenn, Nathan Walker and Jake Neighbours), plus a defenseman (Cam Fowler) scored goals. The Blues struck on the power play. Jordan Binnington made 28 saves.

The result was a win over one of the top teams in the Western Conference and set up a rematch between the two teams on Thursday back home in St. Louis at Enterprise Center.

Still sizzling

The trio of Dylan Holloway, Schenn and Jordan Kyrou continued to produce for the Blues, as Schenn’s goal at 8:25 of the first period gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead early in Las Vegas. Schenn scored on a familiar shot from the left wing, picking his spot over Adin Hill’s left shoulder.

It was a similar shot that Schenn has previously scored with in overtime, in October at San Jose and in November at Boston. The Blues zoomed out of their own zone in transition courtesy of an outlet pass from Ryan Suter to Kyrou, who bumped to Holloway, and then slid to Schenn on the left.

The line entered Monday with 38 points in the past 12 games, and all three players registered a point on the Schenn goal. As the Blues and coach Jim Montgomery shuffle through the rest of the lines looking for working combinations, the Schenn line has remained untouched and become the team’s de facto top line.

Vegas tied the game with 5:51 remaining in the first period, as Tomas Hertl pounced on a rebound during a Golden Knights power play. After a won Blues faceoff, Philip Broberg’s attempted clear was cut off at the blue line by Shea Theodore, who swung it to the left wing for Dorofeyev to crank, leaving a rebound for Hertl.

Walker’s goal with 16.4 seconds left in the first allowed the Blues to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. Walker disrupted a Vegas exit and then was on the back door to retrieve Broberg’s rebound.

It was Walker’s fifth goal of the season and his first since Dec. 29. For Broberg, it was his first point since the Winter Classic on Dec. 31 in Chicago.

Building it up

Neighbours gave the Blues a 3-1 lead 6:31 into the second period, walking into space on the left wing and ripping a shot that beat Hill shortside. For Neighbours, it was his second straight game with a goal after he also scored on Saturday against the Utah Hockey Club.

And Fowler’s goal with 31 seconds remaining restored the two-goal Blues lead, pushing it to 4-2 after Brett Howden’s tally made it 3-2 less than a minute after Neighbours’ goal.

Fowler wound up and fired a point shot from the blue line around a Brandon Saad screen that beat Hill. The Blues power play has suddenly heated up, as Fowler’s goal ensured three straight games with a power-play goal for St. Louis. It was also the team’s eighth in the past 10 games dating back to the Winter Classic in Chicago.

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