ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Blues seemed to have all the momentum before a sudden turn of events left them without their “heart and soul” player against Colorado Avelanche in Game 3 of the second round of the Western Conference at the Enterprise Center on Saturday.
The change came when blue goalkeeper Jordan Binington suffered a lower body injury at 6:45 a.m. in the first period. At the time of the injury, St. Louis, who came out after a 4-1 victory in Game 2, was already leading 1-0.
“It’s always hard,” said Blue captain Ryan O’Reilly. “Obviously, Binner is the heart and the soul, it plays amazing, but I think it kind of took the momentum and it took us too long to get it back. Such things happen. We are a deep team and we could have done a better job of regaining momentum and adapting. “
They didn’t. Instead, Avalanche scored three consecutive goals before continuing to win 5-2 to take a 2-1 lead in the best of 7. Game 4 is here on Monday and Binnington’s status is still uncertain.
[RELATED: Complete Avalanche vs. Blues series coverage]
Binington suffered an injury after being knocked down by teammate Calais Rosen and Avalanche striker Nazem Kadri, who was skating hard to bounce. Although he tried to shake off the injury, he eventually skated off the ice with the help of coach Ray Barill. His deputy, Ville Husso, conceded four goals in 23 shots.
“I think there was a bit of fluctuation in momentum there, but I think even before that we felt the game was coming a little bit more,” said Colorado striker Logan O’Connor. “It simply came to our notice then. They were hard for us to start, closing in on the defense zone, and then I think we started to turn things around a little bit more, gaining a little more confidence with the puck.
“Everyone was going after that, and we were coming in waves. Our game was going in a good direction at the time.”
Binington’s loss also seems to drain all the energy that was in the arena, which was strong and violent from the beginning.
“Perhaps [the crowd was upset] a little bit at first, but then as soon as Ville came in, it got stronger right away, “said Blues defender Colton Paraico.” I don’t know. We have two really good goalkeepers, and Husso was amazing for us all year. This is the beauty of these two. Two great goalkeepers keep us in every game, give us a chance to win and that’s all we can ask for. “
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Husso had taken on a 1-time lead from Binington in the regular season when he was 25-7-6 with 2.56 goals – an average of 0.919 per cent save. Binington was 9-8-1 with 3.45 GAA and .891 percent rescue from Jan. 1 until the end of the season.
However, Binington regained his starting role with a strong performance against Minnesota Wilde in the first round, replacing Husso in Game 4 and winning the next three games to help the Blues eliminate Wilde in six.
Before the injury, Binington had a 4-1 with a 1.75 GAA and a 0.948 percent save, which was second only to Dallas Stars goalkeeper Jake Oettinger (.954, minimum four games) among goalkeepers this postseason. With one loss in game 1 of this series, he made 51 saves. In Game 2, he made 30 to help the Blues equalize the series.
Husse seems to have been confused late Saturday’s game when he was caught between staying in the net and skating to the bench for an extra striker, giving Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog a light shot in the open net for a 4-2 lead at 17:52 from the third period.
“I think every time a goalkeeper comes in, after he may not have played for a while, you just want to get puck in the net, to get traffic,” O’Connor said. “No goalkeeper likes traffic, so we tried to do it as best we could. We will probably overestimate [Sunday], depending on what happens to their goalkeeping situation. We will take a closer look at the strengths and weaknesses of [Husso’s] game. “
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