Three Takeaways From Blues’ 6-5 Shootout Win Against Blackhawks

ST. LOUIS – For the 18,096 in attendance for the game Saturday between the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks, fans of both sides, they certainly got their money’s worth.

There was a little bit of everything, good and bad, sloppy and terrific, goals galore, dekes and dangles, good bounces and bad bounces, but in the end, the Blues were able to prevail in a 10-round shootout, 6-5, at Enterprise Center.

Radek Faksa, sporting a fat upper lip postgame with seven stitches, accounted for the game-winner in the 10th round, his first-ever shootout goal in three tries before Tyler Bertuzzi ran out of room and wasn’t able to beat Jordan Binnington to give the Blues (25-26-5) just their second win in the past eight games (2-5-1).

“Poor first, really good second and lapses in the third, but we also showed a good response in the third to be able to keep coming back,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said.

“It sucks for us, but I think it’s exciting for the fans,” said Blues center Robert Thomas, who had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to four games. “Obviously a big two points no matter what way it kind of happened. We needed a win tonight before the break and we got it. ‘Binner’ played great in the shootout and held it in there until ‘Faksi’s sick move.”

Philip Broberg and Mathieu Joseph each had a goal and an assist, and Brayden Schenn, who scored in the second round of the shootout only to be offset by Teuvo Teravainen, and Pavel Buchnevich each had two assists.

Cam Fowler and Nathan Walker also scored for the Blues, who are now off until Feb. 22 when they resume this season-long six-game homestand.

Let’s dive into Saturday’s Three Takeaways:

* When the Blues skated, forechecked, the results were there; when they were lazy, lethargic, turnover-prone, the results spoke – The first period appeared to be another example of how poorly the Blues have been in them, and it was no different.

They weren’t skating, their passes weren’t clean and crisp, they turned pucks over, and the Blackhawks, who were playing the second of a back to back, took full advantage.

They broke on top when Jake Neighbours turned the puck over just inside the offensive blue line that resulted in a 2-on-1 with old friend Pat Maroon, who fed Craig Smith for a one-timer inside the right circle at 5:04, then Ryan Donato made it 2-0 just 38 seconds later when he intercepted a rare Colton Parayko turnover on a puck off the D-zone boards.

“Just turned over pucks, which resulted in the start that we didn’t want,” Schenn said. “I just felt like we gave them too many odd-man rushes, especially teams on back-to-back. “

The second period was a different story.

The Blues skated, they hunted pucks down, they checked, they hemmed the Blackhawks in and outshot them 17-3 and outscoring them 3-0 when it easily could have been 5- or 6-0.

When Broberg made it 2-1 at 1:40 with a bit of luck on his one-timer from the left point that cuffed Soderblom, the Blues’ fourth line followed up with a shift that resulted in Walker’s goal 10 seconds later to tie the game 2-2 when he intercepted Ethan Del Mastro’s pass:

And when the fourth line with Faksa, Walker and Alexey Toropchenko started a sequence that was a shift that lasted over a minute in the offensive zone and resulted in a Blues power play, it epitomized the way they were playing.

“The first goal was huge for us and then basically the next shift we scored another one,” Faksa said. “So we were on fire and the whole second period was good from us.

“It’s kind of like our job to do, bring the energy and set up the next line for the next shift.”

And when things started going back and forth in the third period, the Blues never wavered and found answers on Fowler’s goal from the left point that deflected in off Seth Jones 42 seconds after Alec Martinez tied the game 3-3:

Then Thomas was able to recover a loose puck behind Soderblom, who thought he covered Broberg’s one-timer from the slot, and tied the game 5-5 with just 4:37 to play:

“That one felt good,” Thomas said. “I didn’t see it until I was kind of getting into the crease. Sometimes you get lucky and it was a much-needed break for me.”

* Joseph injects life into Schenn-Holloway line – Montgomery switched his lines up early again and moving the top three lines around.

Neighbours was struggling so he moved Jordan Kyrou to play with Thomas and Buchnevich and moved Joseph off the line with Oskar Sundqvist and Zack Bolduc to play with Schenn and Dylan Holloway.

It seemed to pay dividends as both Schenn and Holloway seemed to have more jump in their step.

Each helped create Joseph’s goal when Holloway jumped in and poked the puck away from Jones, and Schenn’s forecheck forced the turnover behind the net and he fed Joseph at the top of the crease to give the Blues their first lead, 3-2, at 17:09 of the second:

“You just know what you’re going to get from him,” Schenn said of Joseph, who moved the puck to the point on Broberg’s goal to get the Blues going. “He’s north-south, works hard, goes to the net. It was nice to see him get rewarded with a good game tonight. The three of us played together earlier in the year. It’s obviously been a while. He’s a guy that brings his best effort every single night.”

* Faksa finishes off win – Schenn’s shootout goal was a thing of beauty, a deke to the backhand and lift that gave the Blues the lead:

But Faksa had had enough.

After rounds 3-9 produced no goals and shooters predictable, Faksa was waiting for his name to be called.

When it came, it produced a thing of beauty of his own in round 10:

It was Faksa’s first shootout goal of his career on his third attempt.

“There wasn’t many forwards left and I knew my name would be coming up,” Faksa said. “I kind of heard ‘Monty’ and ‘Otter’ [associate coach Steve Ott] kind of talking about me. I kind of knew if Chicago wouldn’t score, I will be next. I was already planning my move.

“I did it in practice a couple times. I kind of watched what other guys did, how the goalie reacts. I was kind of hoping the move would work.”

The bench reacted with such love for the moment.

“It was awesome,” Montgomery said. “We scored twice and they were both on dekes. The other ones were on shots.”

Montgomery picked Faksa by, “process of elimination, but honestly, ‘Davey’ [goalie coach Dave Alexander] said he had a good forehand, backhand move. That’s what he did.”

“Right before he went, we heard about a sick forehand, backhand move and sure enough, it was pretty sick,” Thomas said.

Schenn said, “Saw it before in practice. I was hoping they were going to call his number. Nice patience by the big man and he was able to seal us the win.”

Should Faksa now be in consideration moving forward? Schenn laughed and said, “That’s a coach’s decision, that’s not my decision. Yeah, when you score a goal like that, you definitely go up the rotation.

“[Soderblom] was obviously feeling it in the shootout. I was just able to get him to drop and hold onto it a little bit and able to beat him to that far post. I found some space. ‘Faksi’s was a little bit more slick than mine was.”