Breakdowns, power play struggles sink Sharks in loss to St. Louis Blues
ST. LOUIS — Jakub Vrana scored his first goal with St. Louis and highlighted the Blues’ 4-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.
Vrana made his debut with the Blues in Tuesday night’s 6-2 loss at Arizona. He was acquired from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for Dylan McLaughlin and a 2025 seventh-round pick on March 3.
Robert Thomas, Sammy Blaise, and Torey Krug also scored for the Blues. Jordan Binnington made 32 saves in his 50th start of the season and improved to 1-5-2 in his last eight starts.
The Blues (28-31-5) have two wins in their last nine games, both against the Sharks. St. Louis went 3-0 in its season-series with San Jose (19-35-12) this season.
Tomas Hertl and Erik Karlsson scored for San Jose. Kaapo Kahkonen made 26 saves and slipped to 1-5-0 against the Blues in his career. The Sharks fell to 2-9-1 in their past 12 games.
Thomas’ power-play goal at the 15:02 mark of the third-period game gave St. Louis a 4-2 lead. The Sharks went 0-for-4 with the man advantage and are now 1-for-28 on the power play in their last 12 games.
“I liked our game in a lot of ways but the mistakes were too big and they ended up in the back of our net,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “We weren’t able to capitalize on the power plays and they had a big power-play goal and that was the end of the game.
“It was disappointing because we were starting to do some good things, but it was just a couple of big breakdowns on their goals that cost us.”
Karlsson now has 20 goals and 83 points this season, as he eclipsed his own career-best of 82 points, set in 2015-16, and tied the Sharks’ franchise record for points in a season by a defenseman. Brent Burns also had 83 points in 82 games during the 2018-19 season.
Vrana poked in the puck from the side of the net at 2:53 of the third period, giving St. Louis a 3-2 lead. Pavel Buchnevich, who had two assists, sent it to the post and Vrana was there to tap it Kahkonen where it caromed off Karlsson for the goal.
Thomas scored on the power play at 15:02, making it 4-2. The Blues’ power play went 1-5 in the game and is 3 for 40 since the Ryan O’Reilly trade on Feb. 17. All three power-play goals came against the Sharks.
Each team scored one goal in each of the first two periods.
St. Louis went up 2-1 when Blais scored at 10:06 of the second. Colton Parayko dove on the ice and poked a loose puck ahead for Blais, who scored with a high shot on a breakaway.
A turnover by Calle Rosen let San Jose come back to knot it at two. Hertl scored on a snapshot at 14:31. Karlsson scored on a wrist shot at 10:30 of the first period that beat a screened Binnington.
A turnover by Thomas in the Blues’ end began the play that ended with Karlsson’s 20th goal this season. St. Louis tied it at 1-all on a goal by Krug at 12:31. Thomas raced down the right wing with the puck and passed back to the trailing Krug in the slot. It was Krug’s first goal since Dec. 1.
Ice Chips
The game marked the only time this season the Blues wore their 1990s red and blue vintage jersey inspired by the sweaters worn by Brett Hull and Chris Pronger. … Vrana is one goal shy of 100 for his NHL career. … Hertl is one goal shy of 200 in his NHL career.
Staff writer Curtis Pashelka contributed to this story.