Robert Thomas scored, and Jordan Binnington stopped all three shots in the shootout, lifting the St. Louis Blues to a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken in the Blues’ home opener on Saturday night.
Jordan Kyrou netted a goal for St. Louis, and Binnington made 28 saves in regulation and two more in overtime.
“He was unbelievable. He made some really big saves for us, but he stopped a lot of 2-on-1s,” Kyrou said about Binnington, who had 33 saves in the season opener, which was a shootout loss to Dallas. “Huge saves during the shootout. He was excellent.”
Jaden Schwartz scored for Seattle (0-2-1), and Joey Daccord stopped 23 shots in regulation.
“The guys gave me a chance to see a lot of pucks and blocked a lot as well,” Daccord said. “Credit the guys with making my job easy tonight.”
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol saw positives despite the loss.
“I think we played a really good road game tonight. It was well played,” he said. “We did many things that we want to do on the road. We didn’t generate enough offense. It was a good night for Joey. He was rock solid. He made some good saves at the right time.”
Seattle took the lead 40 seconds into the second period with a power-play goal by Schwartz, the former Blue who tipped Oliver Bjorkstrand’s shot past Binnington for a 1-0 lead. It was Schwartz’s first goal in four games against his old team. This season, the Kraken power play hadn’t scored on its previous six tries, including a five-minute major.
Kyrou tied it 1-1 with a wrist shot from the slot after being fed by Thomas at 7:49 of the second.
“It was a big shift by us there. We created a lot of momentum,” Kyrou said. “Thomas and I just did a little give-and-go.”
Blues coach Craig Berube praised the performances of Kyrou and Thomas.
“He tracked hard in the game, Jordan. He was skating tonight, and Thomas was skating hard tonight,” Berube said. “They were good. It’s a defense-to-offense situation. We’ll keep preaching that and trying to tighten it up and play good defense. We’ve got to find a way to score a few more goals.”
A minor penalty by Vince Dunn at 6:55 of the first period gave St. Louis a power-play opportunity, but they failed to score. The Blues had additional power-play chances later in the first period, late in the second period, and early in the third period.
The Kraken penalty kill hasn’t allowed a goal in 11 attempts this season.
A goal by Dunn at 13:36 was disallowed due to goaltender interference by Jared McCann. Officials ruled McCann’s stick hit Binnington in the mask.
Matty Beniers, Bjorkstrand, and Jordan Eberle missed in the shootout for Seattle. Brayden Schenn and Kyrou missed for St. Louis.
ICE CHIPS:
- The Blues are 34-19-2-1 all-time in their home openers and have won their last four.
- The teams will meet again in Seattle on Jan. 26 before closing the season series in the last regular-season game at Enterprise Center on April 14.
- Nick Leddy played in his 100th game as a Blue. He was acquired from Detroit ahead of the 2022 NHL trade deadline.
TRAINER’S ROOM:
- Kraken: F Brandon Tanev (upper body) missed his second consecutive game. He suffered the injury on Tuesday during the season opener against Vegas.
- Blues: LW Pavel Buchnevich (upper body) was hurt in the first period and did not return to play. “He’s one of our best players and great all around,” Kyrou said. “It sucks to see him get hurt, but guys got to step up, and they did that tonight.”
UP NEXT:
- Kraken: Host Colorado on Tuesday night.
- Blues: Host Arizona on Thursday night.
