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Blues do it again, coming from behind for a 5-3 win over Nashville - STLtoday.com

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With the number of players the Blues have had injured or out with COVID this season, just about every night seems to be a comeback for somebody.

And every night, there seems to be a comeback for the Blues.

Brayden Schenn returned to the lineup after missing two games with COVID (or, as he said, nothing more than a stuffy nose) and had two goals, two assists and two penalties as the Blues came from behind to win for the 14th time this season in a 5-3 victory over Nashville in a Central Division showdown before a sellout crowd at Enterprise Center that came out in part to see Chris Pronger’s number 44 get retired.

In addition to Schenn’s two goals, linemate Ivan Barbashev had two goals to raise his season total to a team-high and for him a career-high 15 goals. The third member of that line, Ryan O’Reilly, had the other goal. Ville Husso, who had allowed one goal in each of his past two games, allowed three but he made some clutch saves to keep the Blues in the game and stopped 32 of 35 shots he faced for his third straight win. The Blues have won six of eight games since Christmas and their past four wins have all been in games they trailed.

Schenn is the comeback king. This is the third time he has come back into the lineup this season after missing games, though at two games, this was the shortest.

“I’ve had too many days off this year, so I’m just happy to be playing hockey, happy to feel healthy and contribute to the team,” he said. “These are the games that you get up for. It could be a potential matchup later on down the road. Both teams played hard and physical. (Robert Bortuzzo) got us going there with the fight, and a solid team effort all around.”

The Pronger celebration might have been part of the problem for the slow start. Schenn said the length of the Pronger ceremony squeezed the prep time at the start of the game, especially since the Blues players were sitting on their bench, watching much of the ceremony until they had to go back and get dressed for the game.

“We’re all sitting on the bench there,” Schenn said, “and obviously the ceremony went a little bit longer than we expected. Usually guys are warming up and getting ready for the game and stuff like that, then someone came in and said there were only 20 minutes to warmups, so guys had to do a warmup and put on gear in 20 minutes, so guys didn’t have a lot of time to warm up and physically and mentally prepare, so I think it took us a little bit longer to get in the game than normal.”

In addition to this being the 14th come-from-behind win for the Blues this season, it’s the third time they’ve come back from a multi-goal deficit to win, the second-most in the league.

There were two turning points for the Blues in the comeback. First was killing off 1:31 of a two-man power play for Nashville with the Predators up 1-0, and then 19 seconds after Nashville had gone up 2-0, Barbashev got the first of his goals when he redirected a pass from Schenn.

“That (penalty kill) got us going for sure,” coach Craig Berube said. “Killed that off. That’s a great momentum swing. They just don’t quit. Like we understand that we’ve got a lot of time left in the game. I don’t think there’s any panic. You just stay with it, try to get to our game as quickly as possible. It’s a big goal to come back and make it 2-1, that’s a big goal.”

Before the first period was over, the game was tied. Vladimir Tarasenko took a shot that Juuse Saros blocked but O’Reilly grabbed the rebound, maneuvered around Saros and scored his fourth goal in four games and the comeback was on its way.

“I think it’s just been the mentality of maybe this culture or organization for a while,” Schenn said. “You play to the final whistle, you don’t give up, you’re never out of a game. I think that’s the mentality we have in our locker room. We know we can score goals. It’s usually when we defend better and play hard in our own end, that’s when we score even more. It’s just kind of a never-quit mentality with the team that we have in there and guys battle hard right to the final whistle.”

The Blues got four players back from COVID, forwards Schenn, Tarasenko and David Perron and defenseman Colton Parayko, as well as forward Logan Brown, who had been out with a non-COVID illness. That leaves the Blues down just one player to COVID, forward Pavel Buchnevich, who could be back in time for their next game in Seattle on Friday. Parayko, who said he had no symptoms at all, had an assist, as did Tarasenko.

In the second period, where the Blues have dominated this season, they kept it going, coming at the Predators in waves in the early going. Schenn scored 59 seconds in to put the Blues ahead on a two-on-one and Barbashev scored 5:19 into the period off a pass from Justin Faulk to make it 4-2.

“It’s been not pretty (at the start),” Barbashev said, “but we always find a way to get it back.”

Defenseman Scott Perunovich was on the ice at the start of practice but left early, and coach Craig Berube said Perunovich was “not ready to play.” Perunovich missed three games after a positive COVID test and returned on Saturday against Toronto, playing 13:48 and late into the game and took part in the team’s optional practice on Sunday. Berube just said that Perunovich had an injury. … Jake Walman was a healthy scratch. … With the returning players, four players from Saturday, James Neal, Dakota Joshua and Alexei Toropchenko were sent back to the taxi squad and Nathan Walker was sent back to Springfield.

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