BLUES AT LIGHTNING
When: Thursday, Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. CT
Where: Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay, FL
Watch: Bally Sports Midwest, Bally Sports app
Listen: 101 ESPN, NHL App
For the second time in a 48-hour span, the last two Stanley Cup champions will meet again.
On Tuesday night at Enterprise Center, the Tampa Bay Lighting jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first period, but the Blues rallied back on goals from Ryan O’Reilly, Logan Brown and Ivan Barbashev to tie the game. O’Reilly scored again in the shootout, whileJordan Binnington stopped all three shooters he faced to seal a dramatic come-from-behind 4-3 win.
“I think we just kind of reset on the bench,” O’Reilly said of the team after falling behind 3-0. “There were bad bounces and they kind of were just shooting everything, going to the net, getting chaos, got some goals early and put us on our heels. But it was a good thing we settled and took a deep breath, all of us, and started to chip away, started getting back, winning battles and just kind of getting on our toes a bit more and started to build it.”
“Just lots of leadership in that room,” added Brown, a St. Louis native who was playing in his first game as a Blue on Tuesday. “Just a lot of hockey to play, and a lot of time to get it back. This is a great team, so I think we can score goals when we play that way. Just no panic in our game.”
Thursday’s matchup at Amalie Arena will be the final regular-season meeting between the teams in 2021-22.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Jordan Binnington is 5-0-0 in his career against Tampa Bay with a 1.94 goals-against average and a .938 save-percentage. Since the 2018-19 season, Binnington is the only goalie in the NHL to have beaten the Lightning five times.
LIGHTNING Pat Maroon has won three consecutive championships, including the Blues’ 2019 Stanley Cup title. Maroon has five points (four goals, one assist) in 20 games for Tampa Bay this season.
BLUE NOTES
With Tuesday’s win, Blues Head Coach Craig Berube moved past Andy Murray for fourth on the Blues’ all-time coaching wins list (119)… The Blues have won five straight games against the Lightning dating back to Dec. 12, 2017… Vladimir Tarasenko has eight goals in 13 career games against Tampa Bay… Torey Krug has 23 assists in 28 career games against the Bolts… Pavel Buchnevich extended his point streak to four games with an assist on Tuesday. Buchnevich has 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in his last 12 games.
