ST. LOUIS — Ivan Barbashev and Jake Neighbours scored 20 seconds apart in the third period to help the St. Louis Blues win their season opener, 5-2 against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Enterprise Center on Saturday.
Barbashev made it 3-2 at 10:43, finishing a passing play with Pavel Buchnevich and Brayden Schenn on a rush, and Neighbours scored his second NHL goal on a backhand in front to make it 4-2 at 11:03.
“That was a line change. My line was coming out,” Barbashev said. “There was a turnover, and ‘Buchy’ passed to ‘Schenner’ I think. It was just a really simple play. I just decided to take a shot.
“That’s what we do. All we do is try to play physical in our game. They made some mistakes, but our team was able to score a couple.”
Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice, Buchnevich had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Binnington made 23 saves for St. Louis.
“I thought the first period was not bad,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “We passed up a lot of opportunities to get the puck to the net in my opinion, missed the net on some real good opportunities in the first. I think our game was pretty good. We had good energy. I thought we were on top of things for the most part. Second period, we got sloppy and let them back in the game.”
Gustav Nyquist and Sean Kuraly scored, and Elvis Merzlikins made 20 saves in his season debut for Columbus (0-3-0), which was coming off a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday.
“There was lots of good stuff tonight, lots of it,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “You think about the situation we’re in, comparing it to last game, we played a heck of a game here tonight. Teams will force you into some situations. Unfortunately right now, we’re making some really careless mistakes with the puck that’s cost us, and every time we seem to make it, it’s in the back of our net.”
Buchnevich gave the Blues a 1-0 at 5:05 of the first period, scoring on a one-timer from the right circle off a no-look pass from Torey Krug on a power play.
Tarasenko pushed the lead to 2-0 at 1:04 of the second period when he beat Merzlikins short side after being left all alone in the right circle.
Nyquist cut it to 2-1 at 2:21 on a rebound at the top of the crease. Johnny Gaudreau had the primary assist on the play, his 400th in the NHL.
Kuraly scored 18 seconds later to tie it 2-2, shielding off Jordan Kyrou down the left wing before shooting over Binnington’s poke check attempt.
“I thought actually we had a couple more opportunities to score another one there and [take] the lead into the third period,” Nyquist said. “Couldn’t get it done.”
After Barbashev and Neighbours gave St. Louis the lead back, Tarasenko scored an unassisted goal at 18:29 of the third for the 5-2 final.
“We were better in the third period,” Berube said. “We just played a lot better in my opinion. Stronger on pucks and controlled the play a little bit more in the offensive zone and competed harder on things. Played the game the right way.”
NOTE: This is the first time Columbus has started 0-3-0 since 2015-16, when it began the season 0-8-0.
