ST. LOUIS — Vince Dunn scored a goal and had an assist for the St. Louis Blues in their fourth straight win, 4-3 against the Arizona Coyotes at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.
Dunn has three points (two goals, one assist) and is plus-4 in three games since being a healthy scratch against the Vegas Golden Knights on Jan. 26.
“It’s always a surprise,” Dunn said. “You’re never really walking into the rink and thinking that’s going to be happening to you, but obviously coaches make decisions and you obviously have to respect that and put your head down, work even harder. I guess it was just a reset for me. I didn’t think I was playing that bad, but obviously I had a lot more to give. Obviously, that’s behind me now and just trying to forget about it.”
Sammy Blais, Colton Parayko and Jordan Kyrou each had two assists, and Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for St. Louis (7-2-1).
“I think every game is a little bit different,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “I didn’t think we had a good start to this game, we were outshot 11-1 at one point, but we got involved and changed the momentum of the game, and that’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking for responses.
“You’re not always going to play your best hockey in certain parts of the game, but if you can change it and get a response from your team, that’s a good thing. I think we’re doing that right now.”
Christian Dvorak scored twice, Nick Schmaltz had a goal and an assist, and Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves for Arizona (3-5-1).
“I thought we had a really good first period in general,” Schmaltz said. “They got that goal there, but I really liked our first. We got away from it a little bit in the second. They’ve got a lot of guys who can make plays. They got their forecheck going a little bit. We turned it over a little … it’s a tough loss.”
The Coyotes and Blues are scheduled to play here again Thursday.
Ryan O’Reilly scored on a one-timer off a pass from Kyrou at 1:44 of the third period to give St. Louis a 4-2 lead.
Schmaltz scored for Arizona at 17:21 with Kuemper pulled for an extra attacker to make it 4-3.
Justin Faulk gave the Blues a 2-1 lead when he scored at 3:54 of the second period after skating around Coyotes forward Barrett Hayton and defenseman Jordan Gross.
Dvorak scored his second of the game, on the power play, to tie it 2-2 at 6:25, five seconds after a 5-on-3 ended.
Dunn gave St. Louis a 3-2 lead at 11:45 with a wrist shot from the top of the right hash marks.
Arizona had 11 of the first 12 shots on goal in the first period and took a 1-0 lead when Dvorak redirected Tyler Pitlick‘s shot at 10:15.
“We definitely had some good spurts throughout the game,” Dvorak said. “Just clean breakouts, whether it’s getting pucks deep on the forecheck. I was moving the puck, getting to the net, getting bodies to the net.”
Mike Hoffman tied it 1-1 at 17:25 with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle after Coyotes defenseman Alex Goligoski slipped.
“Obviously, it was nice (to score),” Hoffman said. “… I was trying to observe the play coming up the ice, seeing how many guys we had. Obviously, [Goligoski] kind of lost his footing, gave me a partial breakaway. So any time you can get opportunities like that, it’s nice to take advantage of them.”
NOTES: Binnington got his 60th NHL win in his 88th start, passing Brian Elliott (89 starts) as fastest for a goalie to reach the mark in Blues history. He is 60-19-9. … St. Louis center Brayden Schenn had his seven-game point streak end (six goals, four assists). … O’Reilly won 18 of 26 face-offs (69.2 percent) and led Blues forwards in ice time at 21:34. … There were 1,400 fans in attendance in the first game open to the general public in St. Louis since March 8, 2020.
