For a determined effort, playing shorthanded and on the second of a back-to-back, that was a tough way for the St. Louis Blues to lose.
The Blues picked up a critical point, but they fell for the first time in three games over the past eight days against the Los Angeles Kings when Quinton Byfield scored 27 seconds into overtime to give LA a 2-1 win on Saturday at crypto.com Arena.
It was an unfortunate ending to a valiant effort for the Blues, who finished a stretch of nine games in 15 days coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off including three sets of back-to-backs, but Byfield scored after the Blues’ Dylan Holloway didn’t handle a Philip Broberg pass to him, throwing the timing of a breakout out of the zone, then hetting hemmed along the wall and not being able to poke a puck forward and out of the zone to Robert Thomas. Byfield moved into the left circle and beat Joel Hofer on the short side top shelf to end it:
The Blues (31-27-7), coming off a 4-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday and playing the game without their top defensive pairing in Colton Parayko (knee) and Cam Fowler missed the game to return to St. Louis for the birth of his second child today, plugged Tyler Tucker and Matthew Kessel into a lineup with three veteran defensemen and Philip Broberg, put in a valiant effort and went 2-0-1 against the Kings, taking five of six points.
Nick Leddy, one of the d-men who had to step up with Parayko and Fowler out of the lineup, stepped up to score a huge third-period goal — his first in 49 games — to help the Blues earn a critical point in the standings, and Hofer rebounded with a strong game, making critical saves in the third period after getting yanked in his last outing against the Dallas Stars.
Each team had a goal called back. The Blues just 36 seconds into the game when a potential Brayden Schenn power-play goal that was initially ruled a goal was overturned after a review in Toronto, and a Vladislav Gavrikov goal in the second period that would have given LA a 2-0 lead was overturned by a Blues challenge for offside and Byfield was the culprit who entered the zone prior to the puck.
The Blues, 7-1-2 their past 10 games, now will be off until Thursday but will enter Sunday one point behind the Calgary Flames for the…