TORONTO _ After their disastrous finish in Montreal cost them a win or a tie, the Blues came back with probably their best game of the season, beating the high-scoring but right now struggling Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-1, on Saturday night.
It was just the second win of the season for the Blues in seven games who were winless in their past three games and were 0-2 on the road. The Blues got goals from Robert Bortuzzo, Zach Sanford, Ryan O'Reilly and Ivan Barbashev, in all four cases their first goals of the season. In the case of Bortuzzo, it was his first since last season. For Sanford, it was his first since April of 2017 and for O'Reilly, it was his first of the season.
"I think it was huge," O'Reilly said. "It gives us some confidence. We know what we can do."
"That's Blues hockey," goalie Jake Allen said.
"That looked a lot more like the St. Louis Blues," coach Mike Yeo said. "The guys came out and gave a great response. As far as the last game went down, we talked about how we needed to play the game and we did that to a T."
Toronto broke the shutout with 15:37 to go on a deflection by Morgan Rielly that got past Allen that made it 3-1. Toronto had been shutout by Pittsburgh in their previous game 3-0 and was held to 23 shots by the Blues.
"I thought Jake was phenomenal," Yeo said. "He was very calm and confident in the net. We needed him to win tonight and Jake gave us every opportunity."
The Blues held Toronto to eight shots through two periods before a more predictably lively third period. Despite their knack for giving up leads this season, the Blues held on in the third period. Toronto pulled its goalie with 3:10 to go in the third, which was soon followed by a hook by Jaden Schwartz, which gave Toronto a two-man advantage. On the two-man disadvantage, Barbashev won the puck and fired the shot the length of the ice into an empty net to give the Blues their needed breathing room.
All three of the Blues' goals came at even strength, something they hadn't been very good at this season while their power play had sparkled. The Blues were 0-for-4 on the power play (though O'Reilly's goal came four seconds after a power play ended) and killed all four of Toronto's power plays, and Toronto had the best power play in the league.
