The St. Louis Blues can tie a team record with a home win Thursday night when they face the Pittsburgh Penguins, but an 11th consecutive win would just be a means to accomplishing a bigger goal.
“We just know if we keep winning our games we’re going to be in the playoffs, and that’s our goal,” coach Jim Montgomery said Tuesday after the Blues’ 2-1 overtime win against the Detroit Red Wings.
St. Louis’ 10th win in a row came in heroic fashion against the visiting Red Wings. Jordan Kyrou’s 32nd goal tied the game with 29 seconds left in regulation, then Cam Fowler scored with 1:33 to go in overtime.
The winning streak that started on March 15 has propelled the Blues (41-28-7, 89 points) into playoff position. Beating Detroit allowed the team to jump the Minnesota Wild for the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference entering Wednesday.
Robert Thomas has been an offensive spark during the current streak, with two goals and 15 assists in that stretch. Thomas has points in nine of the 10 games, with a goal and 11 helpers coming in the last five contests.
On the other end of the ice, goalie Jordan Binnington is playing like he did in 2019, when the Blues won 11 straight en route to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup. Since helping Canada win the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, he is 11-2 with a 2.00 goals-against average. He has started in six games during the winning streak and has allowed only four goals in his last four appearances, posting a .963 save percentage (103 for 107) in that span.
While the Blues are focused on a playoff run, the Penguins (30-34-11, 71 points) are shifting focus toward next season. Although they have not been eliminated, they entered Wednesday eight points back of the Montreal Canadiens for the last Eastern Conference wild card with only seven games remaining. That’s one fewer game than Montreal, and four teams stand between the Penguins and the Canadiens.
Pittsburgh’s last game, a 1-0 overtime win Sunday against the visiting Ottawa Senators, marked the debut of Ville Koivunen, a 21-year-old prospect the team received as part of the Jake Guentzel deal with the Carolina Hurricanes before the 2024 trade deadline.
Koivunen skated on the second line along with Rickard Rakell, who leads the Penguins with 32 goals, and finished with seven shot attempts in more than 17 minutes of ice time.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said the Finnish prospect has the ability to become a top-six forward.
“We love his offensive instincts, his ability to make a play, and he has a little swagger to him,” the coach said. “He plays with moxie. He doesn’t just throw the puck away, hangs on a puck (and) protects pucks. He sees it pretty good.”
Sullivan also confirmed that Evgeni Malkin will travel with the team on the three-game, four-day trek that starts in St. Louis. The former Hart Trophy winner, who last played on March 23 because of an upper-body injury, has 46 points (15 goals, 31 assists) in 62 games.
–Field Level Media
