SALT LAKE CITY — Jordan Kyrou scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, and the St. Louis Blues defeated the Utah Hockey Club 2-1 at Delta Center on Sunday.
“I thought we had a great game tonight,” Kyrou said. “All the way from the start, all the way to the end, we played hard. We played aggressive. We played fast. We played with the puck. We weren’t just throwing it away.”
Alexandre Texier also scored for the Blues (24-25-4), who ended a four-game losing streak. Jordan Binnington, who will represent Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off from Feb. 12-20, made 24 saves.
“I just liked the way we started the game aggressively and we played all 60 minutes aggressively,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “It was good to see us compete like that and play hard for each other and get rewarded.”
Michael Kesselring scored, and Connor Ingram made 27 saves for Utah (21-22-9), which has lost five games in a row (0-3-2).
“I didn’t like our energy and our urgency,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “I think St. Louis, they played much better than the last two times we played them. They played way more stingy and it took way too long for us to accept that, go to work, put the puck behind and build speed, and do those kinds of things.”
Texier opened the scoring at 17:41 of the first period, beating Ingram above his shoulder on the blocker side to give the Blues a 1-0 lead.
“That’s a great two points,” Texier said. “We have three more games at home before the break… That’s a huge boost for us, and [we] just have to do one game at a time, and that was a good one tonight.”
Kesselring tied it 1-1 at 3:27 of the third period, sending a slap shot from the point that beat Binnington through traffic off the far post and in.
“We’re a resilient bunch. I thought we battled hard today,” Kesselring said. “These are playoff games for us. We need to win. We need to push. I know we have some injuries, but there’s no excuses.”
STL@UTA: Kesselring unloads on one and finds twine
Kyrou gave the Blues a 2-1 lead at 7:13, scoring with a one-timer through Ingram’s pads off a spinning pass from Robert Thomas from behind the net.
“I thought we stayed positive, and we stayed with it,” Kyrou said. “The guys went out there for the next shift. They had a great shift. And we just kept building on that and just kept going.”
STL@UTA: Kyrou restores the lead with a scorcher from the circle
NOTES: Blues defenseman Tyler Tucker left the game at 6:33 of the third period with an upper-body injury and did not return. Montgomery did not have an update after the game. … Kesselring’s goal was his sixth of the season, a career high.
