Godfather Part III is not widely considered a great film overall. However, to paraphrase the line most people know from the film, just when we thought we were done with them, the St. Louis Blues pull us right back in.
Amid their worst losing streak of the season, four games, playing against Utah seemed like a sure fifth loss. The Blues had already lost two games to Utah this season and Arizona went 4-2-1 against the Blues the two seasons prior (don't give me that nonsense about them technically being a new franchise).
Instead, we got the version of the Blues that seemed a legitimate playoff contender just a couple of weeks ago. They were determined and feisty.
St. Louis came out strong in the first period and all but dominated. They outshot Utah 15-6.
St. Louis should have had more than the one goal they did get but still had some of that poor luck. Alexandre Texier had an open net that the Blues couldn't get a goal on earlier in the period.
Nevertheless, it would be the Frenchman that got things going. Texier was standing in the slot and took a drop pass from Radek Faksa - whether it was intentional or not, it worked - and snapped a wrister past the glove hand for a 1-0 Blues lead.
Things evened out a little in the second period, but the Blues stood firm. Jordan Binnington made nine saves in the middle frame and the team played well enough in all phases to keep it 1-0 going into the third.
Still, St. Louis can never make it easy on the fans. Even though the Blues dominated on faceoffs through the game, Utah won a key win about three and a half minutes into the third. It went straight back to Michael Kesselring who blasted a slap shot through traffic and in off the post before Binnington even knew what happened.
With the game 1-1, it seemed destined for another one of those games that would slip away at the end even if the Blues were the better team on the night. Instead, St. Louis buckled down and got back at it.
Less than four minutes after the game was tied, the Blues battled along the wall and Robert Thomas zinged a pass back out front to the back side. Jordan Kyrou hammered a shot from the right circle and it was 2-1.
The Blues relied a little too much on defending and Binnington for the rest of the period, but they got the job done. At this point in the season, playoffs or not, they just needed to stop the bleeding and did that with the win.