ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Blues had everything going for them in their home opener against the Minnesota Wild for at least the first 40 minutes except for what mattered most: the scoreboard.
And all that became a moot point with the game in hand and then it happened: a goalie goal!
The Blues lost their home opener, 4-1 against the Minnesota Wild in a game that for 40 minutes resembled one in which they probably deserved to be ahead but were trailing 2-0 thanks to a power-play goal (Ryan Hartman) and shorthanded marker (Jakub Lauko).
But then with the game in hand, the 15th goalie in NHL history (18th goal) was scored by Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson, who launched the puck high down the ice into the empty net at 19:51, a power-play goal with Philip Broberg in the box for the Blues with a four-minute high-sticking infraction.
It capped off that kind of night for the Wild (2-0-2), who haven’t lost in four regulation games to begin the season while dropping the Blues to 2-2-0 after their second straight loss.
But going to the play, the Blues called a time out with 33.6 left in the game and down 3-1 when Pavel Buchnevich sent a wrist shot from just outside the blue line right at Gustavsson, who caught the puck, dropped it, dropped to a knee and launched the puck the length of the ice into the net to make it 4-1.
“They took a time out there with 30 seconds left or something and ‘Flower’ [Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury] looked up that the board and said, ‘You should probably try it if you get the chance,” Gustavsson said. “‘You’re shooting, right?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe I should.’
“Coaches usually get mad if you try it with a one-goal lead and it becomes icing if you miss it, so up (3-1), if I get the chance, I’ll try it.”
Fifteen NHL goalies have been credited with a total of 18 goals (16 in the regular season, two in the Stanley Cup Playoffs). The last was Tristan Jarry with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 30, 2023 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Wild coach Jon Hynes was coach of the Nashville Predators when Pekka Rinne scored a goalie goal against the Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 9, 2020.
“It was one of my first couple games in Nashville,” Hynes said. “It was almost very similar to Gus’s. It was a 6-on-5 situation and they kind of dumped it in on the goalie and he had time to do it. Both guys, you could tell they were going for it. Great to see.”
There was plenty of good to see from the Wild, who were shorthanded for the game playing without forwards Joel Eriksson Ek (broken nose) and Marcus Johansson (undisclosed) and defenseman Jared Spurgeon (lower body). The Wild played with 11 forwards and seven defenseman in the game as a result, and their star, Kirill Kaprizov, played defenseman-like minutes at 27:59 as a result.
“I think there’s still some areas in the game where we could have probably tightened it up and kind of put more pressure on them even,” Blues defenseman Justin Faulk said. “I think we were a little sloppy with the puck coming out of our zone and just kind of coming through the neutral zone and what not where we probably could have put our foot down a little bit more knowing they were a shorthanded group tonight, dressing 11 forwards and a couple of their top guys were injured. There was more there to be had obviously. The result is the result, but I think there’s a little bit more from our group tonight.”
The Blues at one point were outshooting the Wild 18-5 in the game but trailed 2-0 on the goals by Hartman at 3:50 of the first period after Alexey Toropchenko was correctly whistled for high-sticking Jacob Middleton in the neutral zone and Lauko’s shorthanded goal at 7:52 of the second when he fought off Jordan Kyrou before beating Jordan Binnington high on the short side.
After two periods, the Blues held a 56-27 shot attempts advantage and finished the game with 72 shot attempts, but missed the net 20 times.
“For 40 minutes, we played some good hockey and weren’t able to bear down on our chances,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “Careless sticks that led to penalties and they were very opportunistic. … The goal in the third period seemed to take the wind out of our sails pretty quick.”
It was a mistake by veteran Nick Leddy, who tried a quick out pass to his right that bounced off a skate and remained in the zone, and Marco Rossi put the game out of hand 46 seconds into the third to make it 3-0.
“I’ve just got to make a stronger play,” said Leddy, who was moved down to the third pairing with Matthew Kessel and Ryan Suter moved up with Colton Parayko.
The Blues got one — finally — past Gustavsson when Broberg and Zack Bolduc kept a puck in the Minnesota zone, and Mathieu Joseph scored his first as a Blue at 10:10 to make it 3-1 and give a glimmer of hope for the home side.
It was not meant to be.
The Blues had a few misfortunes that happened. One when Kyrou scored that saw referee Carter Sandlak blow the play dead thinking the puck was covered when replays showed it wasn’t, and Suter scored at the end of the second but his floater went in just after the horn sounded.
“It was a great pass by ‘Tommer’ and the goalie made a helluva save there,” Kyrou said. “I thought the puck was loose when I put it in.
“I think we had a lot of chances there and we couldn’t capitalize. We let them get that one and they got a lucky break there on the power play and we just kind of let it get away from us.
“We were playing fast, aggressive, playing int he o-zone, playing quick, moving the puck, attacking the net, getting shots on net, driving the net. I like that part of our game.”
