Three Takeaways From Blues’ 4-3 OT Win Against Flames

It wasn’t the cleanest game of the Jim Montgomery era as coach of the St. Louis Blues.

But the signs of a team maturing is when you can find a way to bag points even when it isn’t the best game.

The Blues found a way on Thursday when they survived the Calgary Flames, outshot 39-24 for the game, but Colton Parayko’s overtime game-winner was the difference in a 4-3 win at Scotiabank Saddledome.

Robert Thomas had a goal and two assists, including the primary assist on Parayko’s fourth OT game-winner, which is a new Blues record for defensemen.

Jordan Binnington, playing in his 300th NHL game, came up big with 36 saves, Philip Broberg had two assists and logged a career-high 26:51 and Dylan Holloway extended his point streak to five games (four goals, four assists) with a helper on Parayko’s OT goal.

The Blues (13-12-2), who continue the trip Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers before finishing it off Tuesday against the Vancouver Canucks, opened with a 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets this past Tuesday; they are now 4-0-1 since Jim Montgomery took over as coach Nov. 24, taking nine of a possible 10 points.

Here are tonight’s three takeaways:

* Offense is humming under ‘Monty’ — Remember when the Blues were struggling to score goals? Yes, it is only a small sample size, but prior to Montgomery arriving, the Blues were 30th in the NHL averaging just 2.36 goals per game with no fixes on the horizon.

Well, in the five games under Montgomery, they are tied for seventh at 3.6 goals per game, and in four of the five games, the Blues have scored three or more and in three of the five, four or more, including each game on this road trip.

The Blues didn’t have their best offensive foot moving forward in this game but found a way, including a power-play goal from Zack Bolduc:

* Jordan Binnington supplied clutch goaltending — Sure, he allowed three for the game, but the Flames (13-9-5) seemed to pepper Binnington throughout the game.

He stopped 36 shots, including this redirection with under a minute to play that could have been disastrous for the Blues:

The Blues seemed disjointed, especially in the third period when they were outshot 15-4, but Binnington, much like he did last Saturday in a 3-2 OT loss against the Philadelphia Flyers, gave the team a chance to grab a second point when he made sure there would be at least one.

* Commitment to blocking shots — Calgary came in with the mindset of volume.

The Flames were funneling pucks towards the net and had a shots-attempt edge 75-47, but the Blues blocked 21 shots in the game and had seven players with two or more (Broberg, Parayko, Radek Faksa, Ryan Suter, Matthew Kessel, Dylan Holloway and Pierre-Oliver Joseph).

So it wasn’t just one or two players sacrificing their bodies, it was a commitment by committee, and Binnington was certainly appreciative.

* See and hear from Montgomery players following the win: