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CHICAGO — Taylor Hall thought he had Jordan Binnington beat.
So did likely another 40,988 spectators braving the cool gametime temperature of 38 degrees outside at Wrigley Field at the 2025 Discover NHL Winter Classic between the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks.
The Blues, who got back to business like they spoke of and won the game 6-2, were ahead 3-1 in the second period. Hall had just intercepted a Colton Parayko pass, when the Blues defenseman put a puck behind partner Cam Fowler. Fowler had his back turned to the play and Hall read it. He stole the puck, went in alone just inside the Blue line. He had Binnington outstretched but couldn’t get the puck elevated over the right pad with 7:12 left in the period.
It would have made it a 3-2 game, but how many times does it happen? A goalie makes a crucial save at one end, and that team goes on to score on the other.
Dylan Holloway would score on a rebound with 6:26 left in the period, or 46 seconds after the big save, and make it 4-1, putting the game out of reach.
“That happens and that’s hockey right there,” Binnington said. “I feel like these last couple games, it’s maybe happened the other way around. So it felt good tonight.
“We played a very solid game right until the end. We showed maturity in the third period closing it out, playing the right way all the way until the end, tracking hard. It seems like it made everything easier for every player on the ice.”
Fowler had a front row view of the save. He’s played with some terrific goalies, including John Gibson with the Anaheim Ducks, but even he is understanding that he’s now playing behind another great one and saw the game won on that sequence of events.
“It’s hard to think that way in the moment, but ‘Binner’ was unbelievable tonight and kept us in the game and allowed us to continue to gain momentum on the bench,” said Fowler, who scored twice in his 1,000th NHL game. “He did an unbelievable job with that. Like he mentioned, it was finding ways to mature as a team. A 5-1 lead in the Winter Classic, going into the locker room, that can be a challenging situation for a team that’s trying to figure out how to win and how to do things properly, but I was proud of our guys for how we came out in the third in the third and really locked it down, played a mature game and helped us get a much-needed two points.”
Just when Blues fans get down on Binnington, he comes through in the clutch again, but it’s something his teammates come to expect.
“Unbelievable save. I think he made a couple other nice saves too today,” said Blues forward Jordan Kyrou, who scored in the first period. “Just like you said, that could change the game right there. Instead we kept the lead and we just kind of just take it away from there.”
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