The St. Louis Blues tied a franchise record when they won their 11th in a row. Winning 12 would not be easy, going up against the Colorado Avalanche.
However, early on, the Blues made it look easy. They got awarded a questionable power play very early and made it 1-0 just 49 seconds into the game.
St. Louis won the key faceoff as they cycled the puck around. They found Zach Bolduc in the slot and he rifled a snipe into the upper portion of the goal.
Colorado made a big push, but Jordan Binnington continued to be the Avs' kryptonite in the first period. The Blues goaltender finished the first with 17 saves, including several quality ones, as the Blues gave the Avalanche three power plays of their own.
The Blues weathered it and got back to their offense. Robert Thomas set up Jake Neighbours for a nice backhand scoop to make it 2-0 with 12 minutes to go. The first period would finish with that score.
The second opened up just as well. St. Louis killed off the remaining seconds of the Avs' power play and got another one barely a minute in.
This time, Thomas tapped it to Jimmy Snuggerud in the corner. The rookie made a little move and dished to a wide-open Pavel Buchnevich. Buch made some quick stick moves to get the goaltender down and then scooped it in to make it 3-0.
Almost nine minutes in, the Blues got even more. Again on the power play, the Avs lost coverage in the slot again.
Although the pass was hard to handle, Bolduc settled and shot. Using a screen in front, Bolduc's wrister scored low to the blocker side to make it 4-0.
Unfortunately, the Avs kept coming and the Blues got a little sloppy. Very shortly after St. Louis didn't score on the power play, Colorado came down and made them pay.
A poor cross-ice pass forced St. Louis out of the zone. On the retreat, Nick Leddy hit a rut and slipped, turning the puck over and the Avalanche would tuck one in as Binnington went for the poke check and slid through.
With the game 4-1, the Blues still had control, but seemed a little rattled. Another mistake led to another Avs goal.
This time it was a miscue from the captain. Brayden Schenn won a board battle on the left, but got cute with the back pass to Ryan Suter. The Avalanche picked it off, found the man in front and a wrister beat Binner to make it 4-2, which would be the score into the break.
The Blues had a pretty decent third period overall, but couldn't get another insurance goal. That meant they had to make fans sweat at the very end.
St. Louis continues to be one of, if not the worst team in the league when the other team pulls their goaltender. The Avs took out theirs with over two minutes left and almost immediately made it 4-3 when they snuck a long wrister through the five-hole.
It looked like disaster was in store as Pavel Buchnevich missed an empty net chance from near center ice. However, the Blues won a puck battle at their blue line and Thomas sent it 3/4 of the way down and off the post and in to make it 5-3.
Sadly that wasn't enough to completely put it to bed. The Avs scored from the right wing slamming one just inside the post to make it 5-4 with 8.5 seconds left. Thankfully, the Blues saw out the remaining seconds and won their 12th in a row.
Pro: Binnington
Haters will point out that Binnington let in four goals. They're seeing what they want to see.
The man stole this game in the first period and was in the Avs' heads all game long. The amount of guys like MacKinnon that continue to look to the sky after a Binnington save is all I need to see.
Binnington made 17 saves in the first period alone. There were several times throughout the game when he made the initial save and then a quick kick save on the doorstep too, so it's not like these were all long shots with clean vision.
Even if you whine about the four goals, none of which he really had a chance on, Binner still made 35 saves.
Pro: Snuggerud
I do my best to keep an even head and not get too hyped, but some guys make it hard. Snuggerud is one of those guys just two games in.
He's already fitting in like a glove on the team's power play. The guy is fresh out of college and already getting to the front of the net, which is something some Blues struggle with that have been in the league for years.
His vision and composure in the zone is great to see as well. In the second period, there was one play where he just put the puck into the corner for Buchnevich to get. It was such a simple, don't even consider it type of play, but it's also the type of play new guys don't do. They usually try to carry into the zone, drive to the goal and usually lose the puck in the process because there were two defenders in the way.
Snuggerud made the wise decision instead of forcing something. While he's not scored a goal yet, it's coming.
Snuggybear almost scored with 7:30 gone in the third. He had two great cracks, one saved and one blocked, but it's right there for him.
Pro: Bolduc
This guy set a personal goal to get to 20 goals and he is sure doing everything he can to do it. Two goals in this contest give him 18 for the season.
He may not turn out to be a consistent 30-goal scorer, but he's showing the talent to hit it now and then and get 20 regularly throughout his career. The wrister is amazing.
He may have the best shot we've seen since Vladimir Tarasenko and maybe even Brett Hull, though time will tell on that. It's the awareness and hunger that gets you excited.
He knows where to go on the power play and is making those little adjustments in position. He's not just standing still waiting for the passing lane to materialize.
Pro: Thomas
So, Bolduc is the next Hull, Snuggerud could be the next Shannahan and clearly Thomas is setting up to be the next Gretzky. Of course, I'm kidding, but the sudden potency and connectedness of these players is exciting.
As I said in a previous article, I was truly wondering if Thomas was a top line guy. He was trending towards a second-line center, at best, on a true contender.
Now, when the team needs him the most, he's showing how wrong that assessment was. The guy is on fire.
He had four assists in the game before the statisticians took one away. He also scored what proved to be the game winning goal as well.
Of course, you'd like that empty netter to be only insurance, but it proved to be pivotal for the win. Thomas still has a chance to get to 80 points this year, but even if he misses, he's turned it on at the right time.
Overview:
Don't let the lack of cons fool you. The Blues were not perfect in this game.
They relied too much on Binnington. They did have 20 blocks, which means there were potentially 55 shots that might have been on target.
You jump out to a 4-0 lead and then get a little careless. Don't get me wrong, the Avs are a championship contender and should be respected in terms of comeback ability.
But, the Blues had the puck on their stick in some capacity on both of the first two Colorado goals. One was bad luck with Leddy falling and the other was a failure to clear.
The team's continued allowance of goals in the final minutes is beyond worrying. You have to see games out or else you're going to lose. Playoff games are almost always tight.
However, the fact they're continually winning and have unbelievable confidence in themselves is amazing. At this point, I don't care if it's not mathmatically clinched - this team is making the playoffs.
They're going to be a dangerous opponent no matter who they face. They've beaten Colorado twice in a month's time and are clicking in almost all facets. It's an exciting time.