On a night the Blues brought out their red reverse retro jerseys, they nearly pulled off a big comeback, before falling to the Coyotes 4-3 on Thursday night at Enterprise Center. After being shut out by Coyotes goalie Antti Raanta for almost 57 minutes, the Blues scored three goals in the final minutes of the game. Mike Hoffman scored two of them, the last coming with just 25 seconds left in the contest. Ryan O’Reilly got the blues second goal, cutting the deficit to 4-2.
The Coyotes dominated most of the game, getting first period goals from Tyler Pitlick and Nick Schmaltz to lead 2-0 after 20 minutes. Conor Garland scored in the second period to increase the Arizona lead to 3-0. Christian Dvorak scored the Coyotes final goal into an empty net after the Blues had pulled goalie Jordan Binnington late in the game.
Binnington stood on his head early in the game to keep to it close. Raanta stopped 40 Blues shots to get the win in goal for the Coyotes.
Late in the game, the NHL announced a schedule change for both the Blues and Coyotes. They will continue their series on Saturday and this coming Monday in St. Louis. Both team’s next opponents, the Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild are both in Covid shutdowns and unable to play. The Blues and Coyotes will now keep playing each other to avoid games missed.
