(Photo credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports)
After thwarting the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 in overtime Monday night, St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington expects to see a big pushback from the defending Stanley Cup champions.
The Golden Knights visit the Blues on Wednesday night in the back half of this unusual home-and-home sequence.
“We’ll see what happens with that,” Binnington said. “They’ll be hungry to come at us, and we got to hold it down at home.”
Binnington stopped 33 of 34 shots against the Golden Knights Monday in Las Vegas, so he is likely to start in the rematch.
“Give their goalie credit,” said Golden Knights center Jack Eichel, who scored the lone Vegas goal to give him three goals and five assists in his past four games. “He’s an elite goaltender, and he made a lot of big saves on us. We couldn’t figure out a way to get another one by him. There were a lot of positives from our game.
“We play them again in two days, so we’ll be ready for that one.”
The Golden Knights are just 2-2-2 in the past six games. But Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy believes they deserved a better fate Monday.
“We had a lot of good looks, some Grade A’s that (Binnington) made stops on. I thought we defended pretty well and didn’t give up a lot,” Cassidy said. “All in all, pretty good game. Well enough to win for sure.
“We’ve seen a bit of this movie the last month with some goaltenders playing real well against us where we didn’t get points, so at least we got a point in this one.”
Vegas goaltender Logan Thompson (6-3-3, 2.33 goals-against average) has stopped 46 of 49 shots in his past two games. He may make his third straight start with fellow netminder Adin Hill sidelined by a lower-body injury.
The Blues, who have won five of their past eight games, will once again try to push four games over .500 for the first time this season.
“Every win is big,” said Blues winger Pavel Buchnevich, who scored the overtime game-winner. “They’re a good team, Stanley Cup champs. We have to be ready for Wednesday, play the same game, solid defensively, shut down their big guys.”
St. Louis didn’t convert its only power-play opportunity Monday. The Blues have scored on just 9.9 percent of their man advantages this season, which is the second-worst rate in the NHL.
But Blues coach Craig Berube has noticed progress since the team moved winger Jake Neighbours onto the top unit in the net-front role. The Blues had scored four power-play goals in their previous seven games.
“We’re creating a lot more shot attempts, and we still can do a better job of getting the shot attempts past the layers of the PK and putting them into the goalie area so we can get the rebounds,” Berube said.
“I still think we can do a better job of that. We definitely have a better shot mentality.”
–Field Level Media
