After a thrilling 5-4 shootout victory in Vegas, the St. Louis Blues (23-21-4) and the Golden Knights (29-14-4) will meet again just three days later to finish the home-and-home series.
In the month of January, the Blues have posted a 4-1-0 home record. They will look to add to the win column on Thursday when they host the Golden Knights after tying the season series on Monday (1-1-0) at T-Mobile Arena.
Since Head Coach Jim Montgomery took over on Nov. 25, the Blues have posted a 12-1-2 record when they score first. The team kept that trend going as Brayden Schenn was the first to strike. Dylan Holloway had the primary assist on Schenn’s goal, recording his fourth in three games.
Nathan Walker and Jake Neighbours added tallies, while the final goal in regulation was netted by Cam Fowler on the power play. This marked the third straight game where the Blues’ power-play unit has scored and the sixth game in a row that a Blues defenseman has lit the lamp.
After netting a goal and a shootout goal in the game, Schenn emphasized how proud he is of the team’s effort to capture two points on the road against one of the Western Conference’s top teams.
“I thought we played a hard game,” Schenn said. “They’re a good team. We played hard defensively, tight checking. They just made a couple of good shots on the six-on-five, but all in all, I thought the third period was pretty good. So good game and now we know how hard it’s going to be winning that next one.”
The Blues will look to secure the season series against the Golden Knights on Thursday while extending their opponent’s current losing streak to five.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Jake Neighbours has goals in back-to-back games and is on a three-game point streak (two goals, one assist). In Monday night’s victory, Neighbours netted a goal in the second and scored the first goal in the shootout. This season he has 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) in 48 games.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS Shea Theodore assisted on all four of Vegas’ regulation goals on Monday. The defenseman is on a five-game point streak (one goal, nine assists) and ranks second on the team in points with 43 (five goals, 38 assists). In 543 career games he has 349 points (76 goals, 273 assists).
BLUE NOTES
- Since Vegas entered the NHL in 2017-18, the Blues are 12-8-8 against them. The Blues and Golden Knights have also gone to overtime 11 times in their 28 all-time matchups (1-7 in OT / 2-1 in shootouts), which is the most the Blues have gone to overtime against any franchise since the start of 2017-18.
- Since Dec. 23, the Blues have scored 50 goals, which is the most in the NHL in that span.
- The Blues defense has combined for 25 goals this season, which ranks sixth in the NHL (1. Columbus, 30). They have accounted for 18.4 percent of the Blues goals this season, which is the fourth-highest percentage in the NHL (1. Minnesota, 21.0 percent).
- Robert Thomas recorded his team-leading 24th assist on Monday. He has 11 points in his last 13 games (five goals, six assists) and 25 points in his last 23 games (nine goals, 16 assists).
- Brayden Schenn scored his 11th goal of the season on Monday, as well as the game-winning shootout goal. It was Schenn’s seventh shootout-deciding goal as a Blue, which shares the second-most in franchise history (1. T.J. Oshie, 16).
