Blues start fast, close strong in 6-1 thrashing of Ducks

Score three goals in team-record 2:06 to start game to set 

pace for outcome; Kyrou leads way with two goals, assist

By LOU KORAC
Nobody saw that coming.

But the Blues will surely take it, and perhaps the extra days' rest did them good, but the Blues hit the Anaheim Ducks with a sledgehammer early and often Saturday night before they knew what hit them.

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Justin Faulk (72) and Jordan Kyrou celebrate one of Kyrou's two goals on

Saturday in a 6-1 Blues win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center. 

The Blues scored three times in a franchise-record 2:06 to start the game, including two from Jordan Kyrou, who finished with a three-point game for the first time in his NHL career during a 6-1 blitzing of the Ducks at Honda Center.

It started with a Kyrou goal 20 seconds into the game, then Zach Sanford scored 37 seconds later for a 2-0 lead, which also was a franchise record of two goals in the opening 57 seconds to start a game and broke the old record of 59 seconds set Oct. 24, 1991, and Kyrou made it 3-0 and close the book on Ducks goalie John Gibson, who left after allowing three goals on six shots. This after allowing just 13 goals on 225 shots in seven starts to begin the season.

The three goals in 126 seconds to begin a game is the fifth-fastest in NHL history behind Washington (81 seconds Dec. 19, 1986), Detroit (108 seconds Dec. 4, 1987), Boston (119 seconds Nov. 20, 1946) and Detroit (122 seconds Oct. 29, 1981).

"That was probably the quickest start I ever had in a hockey game," Kyrou said. "I was a little surprised myself."

Kyrou, who has 10 points (five goals, five assists) this season, surpassing his nine points (four goals, five assists) in 28 games a season ago, is benefitting from playing with more of a purpose away from the puck in the battle areas, causing havoc and creating turnovers.

"One hundred percent," he said. "Biggest thing is compete and that's always being on the puck, always being tenacious and creating those turnovers. When you can do that, you get more chances and the more chances you get, the more times you can put it in the net. Just got to keep that up."

The Blues (5-2-1) couldn't have scripted it any better scoring three times before the Ducks (3-4-2) even got their first shot on goal.

"Yeah, that was a great start for us," Sanford said. "It's kind of exactly what we want to do, and just attack right away and play hard and play aggressive and we were able to get those three (goals) pretty quick. I think from there we let off the gas a little bit, but you know we were able to bring our game back up later in the game and kind of get back to that start we had."
For goalie Jordan Binnington, it's a nice change of pace having a bird's eye view after being bombarded last Tuesday against Vegas to the tune of 46. 

"Yeah, that's a good start for sure," said Binnington, who faced 24 shots and stopped 23 of them Saturday. "We came out hard with the right mindset. A couple of days in between games, so I really liked what I saw there. We had a great start. Some skilled plays and capitalizing on chances, so it was good to see."

The Blues (5-2-1), who won for the fifth time this season on the front end of the two-game sets, had some extra life and juice to begin a game after their game against Vegas Thursday was postponed because of COVID-19 protocols on the Golden Knights. 

"Rest is always good," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "Guys have a little more jump maybe. Who knows why, but I thought our guys were prepared, business-like in the morning for the skate and they were prepared.

"We always want to get off to a good start and we got a couple bounces that went our way and we capitalized on them and scored early, which is always good. They pushed back. Their captain got involved and I thought they came at us pretty hard at the end of that period."

Former Blue Ryan Miller came on and helped stabilized the Ducks the remainder of the period and through the first six or seven minutes of the second, Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf did his part to get his team back into it by engaging in a fight -- well, more like a wrestling match -- with the Blues' Kyle Clifford 3:31 into the game, and when Max Jones cut the Blues' lead to 3-1 late in the first, that next goal was the critical one.

A Ducks goal, and it's back to game on. A Blues goal and it's game over.

The Blues pushed and pushed to begin the second, came wave after wave and had the Ducks on their heels, and when David Perron sniped one from the high slot off a Ryan O'Reilly pass 7:30 into the second to make it 4-1, it was curtains.

"I thought our team was really good in the second period," Berube said. "I thought we came at them hard, had some good opportunities. I thought we did a good job in the second period. To me, that's probably the difference in the game."

"There were some periods in the middle of the game where we got away from our game and we were letting them control the pace and the play and we were able to get back to ours in the second half of that game," Sanford said. "It's always good when you get right back into that style of play and play how we want to play and not let them dictate it."

The Blues didn't let Anaheim, which came in scoring a paltry 1.4 goals per game (14 total) through eight games, get any momentum in the third period either, and when Clifford scored at 2:59 to make it 5-1 and put him on the brink of a Gordie Howe Hat Trick with an assist -- he didn't get it -- and Vince Dunn, a healthy scratch in Vegas Tuesday, scored a power-play goal at 5:17 to make it 6-1, it marked the most complete game since the season-opening 4-1 win at Colorado.

"I thought Dunner was really focused, really moved the puck well, was aggressive all over the ice," Berube said.

Dunn finished with 17:58 of ice time, and had two shots and two blocks, but Justin Faulk had another solid game and was a plus-4 on the night to take over the NHL lead at plus-10, had four shots and a team-leading six hits.

Berube mixed up the d-pairs and played Faulk with his former World Championships partner Torey Krug, and Berube went back to his shutdown pair of Marco Scandella and Colton Parayko.

"I thought Krug and Faulk really jumped into the play tonight and they were good there," Berube said. "Scandy and Parayko, they do their job defensively, big guys, hard to play against. I thought Dunner and (Niko) Mikkola were excellent tonight. Mikkola closes plays out, he's aggressive. Dunner moved the puck really well, I thought, scored a goal. It was good to see. I thought he had a good game."

Now comes the key: winning again and gaining a series sweep, something the Blues haven't done as of yet, going 0-2-1.

"We just need to keep playing really aggressive, keep playing really hard," Kyrou said. "We can't hold back at all just because we won today. It's going to be (a chance at) our first back to back (series) win." 

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist (70) checks Anaheim's Sam Steel during 

action Saturday in St. Louis' 6-1 win at Honda Center.

"I mean it's just one game in the series tonight and tomorrow is going to be a completely different game, and we know that," Sanford said. "We've got to prepare for that, but I think these two-game mini-series all year, there's going to be some tough games and it's going to be hard to sweep a team, especially on the road."

With a lighter than usual workload, it's conceivable Berube comes back with Binnington on back-to-back nights. This coaching staff hasn't gone down this road before, and Ville Husso could get the nod with Binnington starting and playing seven of the eight games this season.

"Yeah, I feel good," Binnington said. "We're staying on top of each other, and ourselves and getting our rest. The strength coach is doing a great job keeping the boys informed, and we're really all starting to buy in, and we've got a lot of work to do, but it's a unique season - short - and it's going to come at us quick. We're doing a good job so far taking care of ourselves."