For the second time in a 48-hour span, the last two Stanley Cup champions will meet again.
On Tuesday night at Enterprise Center, the Tampa Bay Lighting jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first period, but the Blues rallied back on goals from Ryan O'Reilly, Logan Brown and Ivan Barbashev to tie the game. O'Reilly scored again in the shootout, whileJordan Binnington stopped all three shooters he faced to seal a dramatic come-from-behind 4-3 win.
"I think we just kind of reset on the bench," O'Reilly said of the team after falling behind 3-0. "There were bad bounces and they kind of were just shooting everything, going to the net, getting chaos, got some goals early and put us on our heels. But it was a good thing we settled and took a deep breath, all of us, and started to chip away, started getting back, winning battles and just kind of getting on our toes a bit more and started to build it."
"Just lots of leadership in that room," added Brown, a St. Louis native who was playing in his first game as a Blue on Tuesday. "Just a lot of hockey to play, and a lot of time to get it back. This is a great team, so I think we can score goals when we play that way. Just no panic in our game."
Thursday's matchup at Amalie Arena will be the final regular-season meeting between the teams in 2021-22.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Jordan Binnington is 5-0-0 in his career against Tampa Bay with a 1.94 goals-against average and a .938 save-percentage. Since the 2018-19 season, Binnington is the only goalie in the NHL to have beaten the Lightning five times.
LIGHTNING Pat Maroon has won three consecutive championships, including the Blues' 2019 Stanley Cup title. Maroon has five points (four goals, one assist) in 20 games for Tampa Bay this season.
BLUE NOTES
With Tuesday's win, Blues Head Coach Craig Berube moved past Andy Murray for fourth on the Blues' all-time coaching wins list (119)… The Blues have won five straight games against the Lightning dating back to Dec. 12, 2017… Vladimir Tarasenko has eight goals in 13 career games against Tampa Bay… Torey Krug has 23 assists in 28 career games against the Bolts… Pavel Buchnevich extended his point streak to four games with an assist on Tuesday. Buchnevich has 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in his last 12 games.
Though they reside in different conferences, the St. Louis Blues and Tampa Bay Lightning are playing the roles of familiar foes this week.
Two days after the Blues were triumphant in their first meeting in St. Louis on Tuesday, the teams will face off again in Tampa to conclude the season series.
Thursday's game is expected to have the feel of a match in a best-of-seven playoff series, however the 4-3 win by the Blues in St. Louis was completed in the area that's not part of the postseason at all: the shootout.
Blues captain Ryan O'Reilly scored the only goal in the shootout, firing a wrist shot that got past backup goalie Brian Elliott on the blocker side.
Down at the other end of the rink, netminder Jordan Binnington denied attempts by defenseman Victor Hedman, Corey Perry and Ross Colton.
O'Reilly complimented Binnington for sticking with it after a few bad bounces led to three Lightning goals inside the game's first 5 1/2 minutes.
"You've got to give Binner credit for this game," O'Reilly said. "For him to shut the door like he did was unbelievable. He made some key saves in that third period when they hemmed us in.
"That's his win tonight. He deserved that one."
Binnington ran his record to 8-5-3.
"It's not always going to go your way," Binnington said. "I just stayed with it, and the mission was to try to give the team a chance to win, and I think I did that."
Logan Brown scored in his first game with St. Louis, which has won five straight against Tampa Bay.
The Lightning played with just 11 forwards after learning a few hours before puck drop that captain Steven Stamkos flew back to Tampa for the expected birth of his second child.
According to coach Jon Cooper, all three opposing goals were the result of mistakes after his club scored a trio in the game's first 5:29.
The NHL's longest-tenured coach, Cooper felt St. Louis did not have to earn its goals.
"We made just colossal mistakes," Cooper said. "First goal was a huge error. Second was a turnover, just a bad decision coming up ice. Third one was another (penalty kill) error.
"I wouldn't wrap the whole game around 'we played poorly.' It went to overtime; we had our chances. We didn't get it done. In this league when you get a lead like that, should you shut it down? No question you should."
With Stamkos home and Mathieu Joseph out with an injury, rookie left wing Gabriel Fortier made his NHL debut and registered one shot on goal and a minus-1 in 9:37 of ice time.
Perry and Erik Cernak scored just five seconds apart -- setting a franchise record for the fastest two goals in history. The previous mark was nine seconds.
Cernak (upper body) returned to the lineup after an eight-game absence and served as the seventh defenseman. He notched his first goal.
The Lightning, who finished 8-2-3 in November, have played an NHL-high nine games past regulation.
With Cernak back, the team reassigned defenseman Sean Day to Syracuse of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.
