The St. Louis Blues had it, and then they lost it.
They didn’t just hold a two-goal lead with under two minutes left in Game 7 of their first-round series against the Winnipeg Jets. They also jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the game’s opening minutes.
But the Jets didn’t back down. They scored twice in the final two minutes to tie it, then won the game midway through the second overtime.
Now, the Jets move on to face the Dallas Stars in the second round of the NHL playoffs. The Blues? They’re heading home for the offseason.
Blues Players and Coaches Admit The Loss ‘Stinks’
Giving up the late tying goal with literally 1.8 seconds remaining in regulation to knot the score at 3-3 will stick with the club for a long time.
“Yeah, that one stinks,” said Blues captain Brayden Schenn. “That one sucks. Just from a two-goal lead and two 6-on-5 goals against and a second and half away from closing out the series … sucks. It’s brutal. We had a good group in there that played hard for one another all year, and there’s no other words to really describe that one.”
“It really hurts right now,” said Blues coach Jim Montgomery. “You lose Game 7 in overtime, especially when you have the lead going at the end. It just hurts.”
“It’s an area of our team that has not been good all year, and it’s an area I have to get better at so that our team is better next year at pulled goalie situations.”
The Blues led the rest of the NHL with 13 goals against, with the opposition goaltender pulled for a sixth attacker, which was added to in Game 7 at the worst possible time.
Now, instead of taking on the Stars in the second round of the postseason for what would have been the first time since their Stanley-Cup winning season of 2018-19, the Blues return home to contemplate what could have been.