ST. LOUIS — Robert Thomas scored and Jordan Binnington stopped all three shots in the shootout, lifting St. Louis to a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken in the Blues’ home opener on Saturday night.
Jordan Kyrou scored for St. Louis and Binnington had 28 saves in regulation and two in overtime.
“He was unbelievable. He made some really big saves for us, stopped a lot of 2-on-1’s,” Kyrou said about Binnington, who had 33 saves in the season opener, 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 Kakstol saw positives despite the loss.
“I think we played a really good road game tonight. It was a well played game,” he said. “We did a lot of 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 was good. He made some good saves at the right time. ”
Seattle scored 40 seconds into the second period with a power-play goal by Schwartz, the former Blue who tipped Oliver Bjorkstrand’s shot by Binnington for a 1-0 lead.
It was Schwartz’s first goal in four games against his old team. The Kraken power play hadn’t scored on its previous six tries, including a five-minute major, this season.
Kyrou tied it 1-1 when he scored on a wrist shot from the slot after being fed by Thomas at 7:49 of the second.
“It was big shift by us there. We created a lot of momentum,” Kyrou said. “Me and Thomas just did a little give-and-go.”
Blues coach Craig Berube liked the way Kyrou and Thomas played.
“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 keep 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 gave St. Louis a power-play opportunity at 6:55 of the first period, but the team failed to score. The Blues had a power play chance later in the period, one late in the second period and one 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 because of goaltender interference by Jared McCann. The 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. They have won their last four home openers. … The teams will meet again in Seattle on Jan. 26 before closing out 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 in the season opener against Vegas on Tuesday.
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 he’s 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.
