The St. Louis Blues couldn’t pull out another one.
Falling behind for the third straight game by two goals or more, they were able to overcome those deficits in their first two games but not on Friday.
Despite scoring first for the first time, the Vegas Golden Knights rode the play of top line, including former Blue Ivan Barbashev, who burned his former teammates for a goal and an assist while linemates Jack Eichel (goal, assist) and Mark Stone (two assists) each had two points, and Vegas held on for a 4-3 win on Friday at T-Mobile Arena.
The Blues (2-1-0) were coming off a come-from-behind 5-4 overtime win against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday after trailing 4-1 in the third period and were right in the thick of it on this night but couldn’t quite find the magic for a third straight game.
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Pavel Buchnevich remained hot with two goals and an assist, Robert Thomas scored and Jordan Kyrou had two assists to give him six points (two goals, four assists) to begin the season. Jordan Binnington made 24 saves, including 12 in the second period when the Blues weren’t at their best.
Buchnevich, who also scored on Thursday, gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 6:47 of the first period on a backhand in the slot.
The lead only lasted 1:15 as Eichel scored at 8:02 to tie it 1-1 cutting to the net and pulling a backhand past Binnington.
Barbashev made it 2-1 late in the first at 18:13 when the top line was able to do its thing again, working the puck down low on the right and Stone was able to one-touch a chip to Barbashev in the slot.
Zack Bolduc had a great chance early in the second to tie it up when he was sent in alone with a sauce pass by Kyrou but couldn’t slide a backhand through Adin Hill’s pads.
Shea Theodore made it 3-1 at 2:55 after a failed zone clearance by Nick Leddy led to a shot from the right point, save and big rebound that Theodore stepped into a heavy slap shot bar down.
But the Blues went to their first power play and Buchnevich made it 3-2 at 7:29 when he cut into the right circle following Kyrou’s cross seam pass and beat Hill short side.
Binnington made sure the deficit wasn’t larger and it was only 3-2 heading into the third thanks to the goalie’s key saves as the period wound down.
The Blues couldn’t find that tying goal early enough, and Nicolas Roy scored what would be the eventual game-winning goal at 12:53 of the third when the Vegas forward, along with a teammate, were parked alone in front of Binnington with defensemen Ryan Suter and P.O. Joseph, making his Blues debut, were on the wrong side of the crease and slot area and Roy was able to deflect Theodore’s left point shot to make it 4-2.
The Blues stayed in the hunt again, after a Vegas turnover in the neutral zone, Buchnevich sent Thomas on a breakaway and he buried his first of the season at 15:04 to cut the deficit to 4-3.
But the Blues couldn’t get it to even this time. They had issues getting Binnington off the ice for the extra skater, and when they finally did, one big chance came in the waning seconds off a Thomas face-off win, but Kyrou fired wide from the high slot.
Blues defenseman Colton Parayko had a assist on the Thomas goal to give him 200 in the NHL and with the Blues, becoming the sixth defenseman in franchise history to record 200 assists with the club.
Also, P.O. Joseph made his Blues debut and played in an NHL game with his brother Mathieu Joseph, becoming the seventh brother duo in Blues history to skate together and first since Rich and Ron Sutter in 1991-92.
The Blues will return home to begin a four-game homestand beginning with Tuesday’s home opener against the Minnesota Wild.
