Husso nets first NHL win with 25-save effort in 4-1 win over Ducks

2014 fourth-round pick, once touted as goalie of future, battled way to 

finally crack NHL roster, backs up teammates after slow start Sunday

By LOU KORAC
The Blues knew all along with a compressed 56-game schedule that they were going to have to count on Ville Husso.

And even after Jordan Binnington had a lighter than usual night on Saturday facing 24 shots in a 6-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks, the Blues stuck to their game plan of alternating the duo on back-to-back nights in order to give Binnington proper rest.

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Brayden Schenn (10) congratulates Ville Husso 

after the Blues goalie earned his first NHL win. 

Blues fans were a little skeptical but really hadn't known too much about Husso, the Blues' fourth round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft. His NHL experience had been relegated to one start a week ago Sunday against Los Angeles and a third-period relief appearance against Colorado on Jan. 15. So the jury was still out.

But Husso injected life into a lifeless Blues squad early, and once his teammates got going, it was hugs galore as the final horn sounded for the Helsinki, Finland native, who made 25 saves and earned his first NHL win in a 4-1 Blues victory against the Ducks on Sunday to sweep the two-game set at Honda Center.

Husso, who had been touted as a goalie of the future since he was drafted, has overcome a number of speedbumps on his road to the NHL, including injuries, and an ankle injury in particular during the 2018-19 season that saw Binnington and not Husso, jump into the spotlight and take over the reigns as the No. 1 netminder during the Stanley Cup season.

But his four years at the American Hockey League level paid off, and once the Blues traded away the reliable Jake Allen for salary cap purposes and thrust Husso into the spotlight as Binnington's backup, it was the shot of confidence the franchise felt in him all along, and a good building block to get the first win out of the way Sunday.

"I was happy for sure and it was a big win for us as a team too," Husso said. "Big road trip for us, big points.

"I think it's a good way to come into the league. The first couple of periods when I play, it was like pretty hard. I think it's good for mental too to jump in and just battle. That was for sure a big win today."

The Blues (6-2-1), unlike Saturday when they set franchise records for fastest two goals to start a game (57 seconds) and fifth-fastest in NHL history to start a game with three goals (2:06), came out sluggish, turning pucks over and spending too much time in their own end.
And when Jakob Silfverberg scored a power-play goal on Anaheim's second shot of the game to give the Ducks (3-5-2) a 1-0 lead, there was perhaps a sense of a here-we-go-again feeling since the Blues came in 0-2-1 on the second of these two-game sets.

But Husso, who didn't face a tremendously high volume of shots, kept the Blues in the game with some clutch bail-out saves and holding it to a 1-0 game after the first.

Once the Blues got their legs under them and started managing the puck better, they took control of the game and thanks to their goalie, he enabled them to do that.

"'Huus' was a big factor for us," Blues center Ryan O'Reilly said. "He made some huge saves and we kind of figured we had to get going here and help him out. I thought he played an outstanding game. We knew they were going to come extremely hard. We knew we had to kind of weather the storm a bit. We did that, it wasn't pretty, we hung on and you could tell there was no panic. We started to find our game. Some guys made some key plays at key times and once we got one, we knew we were going to keep going from there. It was a good win."

Husso allowed four goals in the third period of that 8-0 shellacking at the hands of the Avalanche Jan. 15, then made 29 saves on 34 shots in a 6-3 loss to the Kings that left his goals-against average at 7.01 and save percentage at .813. Not exactly bubbling with confidence-type numbers. But he lowered those numbers to 4.40 GAA and .865 save percentage.

"The two games previous that he's been in net for us, we've just been terrible in front of him," O'Reilly said. "We knew we had to kind of recover and get going for him. It was great to see some of the saves he made, they were unbelievable, could have changed the whole game, but he held on, stayed confident and we finally got going, started making some plays and it was good composure by him for sure."

Husso had the composure for sure, making the initial save, and instead of flipping and flopping around, was upright immediately and square to shooters if he didn't control the rebound. The Blues had no choice but to perform better for their soon-to-be 26-year-old rookie.

"I thought Ville Husso played really well, kept us in ... made some big saves in the first period, kept it a 1-0 game," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "I thought we got better as the game went along. We capitalized on some chances.

"(Husso) made some big saves in the first period."

His biggest may have been when he lunged from his right to left and robbed former Blues farmhand Andrew Agozzino in the second period of a 1-1 game. Sammy Blais scored seconds later to give the Blues a 2-1 lead and never look back.

"It was a big save at that point, but it's a team game," Husso said. "Guys scored four goals and that's usually when you win.

"We have been working hard with (Blues goalie coach Dave Alexander). That's for sure helping me. Just need to keep working hard every day and battle."

It could have been real easy for Husso to doubt himself after allowing nine goals on his first 48 NHL shots, but he finally realizes that for the Blues to have success, he's going to be counted on. Binnington had started seven of the first eight games.

"Every day when you come to the rink and you put your work in, you want to get better and for sure there's days you lost the games, but I just tried to stay positive and we worked hard with Davey," Husso said. "That was a big thing for me. I trust this team 100 percent. I knew that the win will come at some point."

They trusted him tonight to make the saves when needed and allow everyone else to follow suit with a strong performance.

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Blues goalie Ville Husso makes one of his 25 saves Sunday and earned

his first NHL win in a 4-1 victory against the Anaheim Ducks.

"Yeah, obviously drafted a couple of years ago and obviously he's probably been waiting for this moment," said Blues center Brayden Schenn, who scored twice to extend his current-best NHL point streak to 10 games (six goals, four assists). "So for him, he was very good for us tonight. I don't think we've played as good as we need to the past game and a half in front of him and tonight he held us in it early, made some quality saves and (was) very deserving of his first win. So that will be a good confidence booster for him, and we have two solid goalies and we need them to win hockey games for us, and that's the first of many for him."

When the game ended, it was 5:31 a.m. in Helsinki where Husso's parents and other family and friends were hopefully watching his first NHL victory.

"I think my parents and probably a couple friends," Husso said. "I'm not sure. I think parents watched the full game and that's nice."