For Mike Yeo, shootouts bring kind of a helpless feeling. There’s not a whole lot of coaching he can do.
“Yeah, I’m not a very good shooter and I can’t play goal,” Yeo joked. “All we can do is keep putting good players out there and again, hope that the goalies do their job and the shooters do theirs. Our guys have been good at that.”
They certainly were in the Blues’ 3-2 shootout victory Tuesday over the New Jersey Devils.
Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko beat New Jersey goalie Keith Kinkaid on their shootout attempts.
At the other end of the rink, goalie Carter Hutton stopped Taylor Hall and Kyle Palmieri on their shootout attempts.
Game, set, match, Blues. And goodnight to the 18,324 at Scottrade Center.
As Vladimir Sobotka, who scored the Blues’ second goal, succinctly put it: “It was hard game. We’re happy for two points tonight.”
• BOX SCORE: Blues 3, Devils 2
• PHOTOS: Blues win in shootout
Until Tuesday, the Blues hadn’t had back-to-back victories or scored three goals in successive games since the Jaden Schwartz injury 12 games ago. But coupled with Saturday’s 3-2 victory over Carolina, they are 25-15-2 for the season, good for 52 points. New Jersey (22-10-7) left town with one point (with the regulation tie) and 51 points.
“We’ve got to build off it,” Yeo said. “We’ve said it before that we felt when things were not going well, we were sharpening up in our game and now we have to make sure we keep pushing it to another level.”
It was the Blues’ third shootout win of the season in as many tries. Schenn has scored a shootout goal in all three games, while Tarasenko has scored in two of three shootouts.
“Shootouts are always a little nerve-wracking, but you feel a little bit better when you’ve got some of the guys stepping over the boards that we do,” Yeo said.
Tarasenko, who scored the Blues’ first goal of the night — and his 17th of the season — in the first period, says he simply tries to watch what has happened before him and read the goalie once he gets into the shootout format.
“You’re nervous a little bit before every time, but you practice it during the practice days, and it’s a chance for you to make a play and get two points,” he said. “I think it’s good. You go out and crowd is pumped up. And they announce your name. ... It’s an emotional moment.”
Hutton, who got the start Tuesday instead of Jake Allen, had several moments that if not emotional were certainly intense. Especially in the 3-on-3 overtime.
“It’s a quick game,” Hutton said. “Some nights it seems quicker than others. Some nights that thing looks like a BB and some nights it looks like a beach ball.”
The rebound attempt by Marcus Johansson at the 2:09 mark of OT was probably closer to BB than beach ball. First, Nico Hischier fired a shot off the post to Hutton’s right. Somehow he got his leg left out in time to rob Johansson’s shot to the other side of the net.
“A lot of stretching. Pliable,” Hutton said on his ability to change directions so quickly. “Just try to compete. It’s one of those ones where it’s instincts.”
The play was reviewed to make sure the puck hadn’t crossed the goal line before Hutton got his leg on it. But it was quickly apparent that that was indeed the case.
It wasn’t so clear-cut, at least not at first, on a coach’s challenge by Yeo in the third period that nullified an apparent go-ahead goal by Jesper Bratt at the 13:46 mark. After a lengthy review, the goal was waved off because of offsides. The league review determined that Johansson was offsides when New Jersey entered the zone — a full 15 seconds before the Bratt goal.
Keep in mind, under NHL rules, the Blues would have been penalized had the offsides challenge been unsuccessful.
“Tough call. It’s tough for Sean (Ferrell),” Yeo said, referring to the Blues’ video coach. “You’re sitting there in the coaches’ office and that one was close. Probably the game is on the line, not just if it counts, but obviously the penalty following it if you get it wrong. But he stuck his neck out there and did a great job helping us get the win.”
• STANDINGS: Blues 4th overall in Western Conference
• BLUES TALK: Fans sound off about Tuesday's win
The review finally showed that it was indeed offsides, but maybe by just an inch. So instead of a 3-2 New Jersey lead, the score stayed at 2-2, paving the way for the overtime and shootout heroics.
“I kept asking (Ferrell), ‘Are you sure? Are you sure?’ “ Yeo said. “I gave him a chance to change his mind, but I’m glad that he didn’t. It was close, it was really close, but a great job by him.”
Enough to make Ferrell the Blues’ No. 1 star of the game?
“I would say Hutts had the best game,” Sobotka said, smiling. “It took a while (for the review) but everyone on the bench was saying it was offsides. It was the right call.”
And a call that gave the Blues another life in their effort to cobble together back-to-back victories.
“You’re not gonna win every game,” Tarasenko said. “Everyone can play better and do more on the ice. We just like started from a clean page, not thinking too (far) away, just win every game. Today we can celebrate, tomorrow’s a new day, and a new game coming.”
Namely, the red-hot Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday at Scottrade.