The St. Louis Blues bounced back after giving up a two-goal lead late in the third period to beat the Vegas Golden Knights 5-4 in a shootout at T-Mobile Arena on Monday.
Jake Neighbours and Brayden Schenn scored in the shootout for St. Louis after Jack Eichel and Pavel Dorofeyev scored for Vegas with the goalie pulled, forcing the game into overtime.
“It should give us a lot of confidence that when we play the right way and focus on the little details, and combine that with great effort and execution, we can compete with elite teams,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said.
Neighbours, Schenn, Nathan Walker, and Cam Fowler scored for the Blues (23-21-4), who had lost 4-2 to the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday but have won three out of their last four games. Goalie Jordan Binnington made 28 saves in the win.
“After a game we weren’t proud of in Utah, we came out with a strong start,” Neighbours said. “Honestly, I thought we played well in the third period, but they just made two nice shots. Sometimes that happens. Our team stayed resilient and found a way to get the two points.”
Eichel and Dorofeyev each had a goal and an assist, and Shea Theodore added four assists for the Golden Knights (29-14-4), who have now lost four games in a row. Goalie Adin Hill made 24 saves.
“Nobody’s panicking, I’ll say that. We’re not in the room tearing the walls down,” said Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy. “It’s my job to get us ready to fight during parts of the season, like right now. It’s a bit of a slow patch in January. We’ve built ourselves a cushion, so maybe that’s playing into it.
Some of these teams are now playing catch-up, and their urgency is higher than ours right now. We’re working on addressing that, but it’s not something that changes instantly. It’s something that will take time.”
Schenn gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 8:25 of the first period, scoring with a wrist shot from above the left circle on a 3-on-1 rush.
Tomas Hertl tied the game 1-1 at 14:09 with a power-play goal, putting in a rebound from Dorofeyev’s shot in front of the net.
Walker responded for the Blues, giving them a 2-1 lead when he scored on a rebound below the left circle at 19:43.
Neighbours pushed the Blues’ lead to 3-1 at 6:31 of the second period, firing a wrist shot above Hill’s right shoulder from the left circle.
“[Robert Thomas] did a great job protecting the puck, drawing in almost three defenders. I just tried to get over there to support him,” Neighbours said. “He made a great play, and I just tried to get a good shot off.”
Brett Howden cut the Blues’ lead to 3-2 at 7:25, collecting a rebound off Theodore’s shot and scoring with a turnaround wrist shot from the slot.
Fowler then extended St. Louis’ lead to 4-2 at 19:29 with a slap shot from the point on the power play.
“People are attacking the net,” Montgomery said. “They’re attacking seams and getting to the net well. When it goes up top, I think [Justin] Faulk and Fowler are doing a really good job of getting shots through.”
Eichel brought Vegas back within one, making it 4-3 at 16:50 of the third period with a one-timer from the left circle. Dorofeyev tied the game 4-4 at 19:30 with a one-timer from the right circle.
“It was good resilience and a good push to at least get us a point,” Howden said. “There are definitely things we want to clean up to play a better game. We don’t want to be giving up four goals every night, that’s for sure. But it’s a step in the right direction to get our confidence up after coming back late.”
