Faulk scores twice, Kyrou scores game-winner as Blues beat Sharks 5-4

ST. LOUIS — Jordan Kyrou netted the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, Justin Faulk scored twice and the St. Louis Blues rallied to beat the San Jose Sharks 5-4 Monday night.

Mike Hoffman scored his first goal as a Blue and Brayden Schenn also scored for St. Louis, which beat San Jose for the fourth straight time on home ice. Jordan Binnington made 22 saves.

Logan Couture had two goals and an assist, Brent Burns had a goal and two assists, and Kevin Labanc also scored for the Sharks. Devan Dubnyk stopped 27 shots.

Kyrou’s wrist shot snapped a 4-all tie midway through the third. It was his second career game-winner after getting his first in the Blues’ season opener at Colorado on Wednesday.

“We did a good job tonight coming back and refocusing and dialing into this one,” Kyrou said.

Faulk got his second goal when he tipped in David Perron’s pass with one minute left to cap a back-and-forth second period and give the Blues their first lead of the game. It was his first multi-goal game since recording a hat trick as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes against the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 13, 2018.

“I think there’s always opportunities to jump in the rush and you’ve got to know who you’re out against and kind of see the play developing in front of you before you kind of get aggressive,” Faulk said.

Couture countered with his second of the game, from a severe angle, to tie it at 4 at the 4:17 mark of the third period.

The Sharks took an early lead with first period goals from Labanc and Couture. Labanc deflected in Burns’ slapshot with 8:22 left in the first period, and Couture followed with a power play tally a few minutes later.

“This game was a winnable game for us,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “We scored four on the road. We won the special teams and that should be a recipe for at least a point. I can think of three, off the top of my head, goals that came off our sticks. Just high percentage, really unsmart hockey plays, and they go down and score and that hurts.”

The Blues tied it with quick goals by Faulk and Hoffman early in the second period.

Faulk got the Blues on the board at the 2:36 mark moments after he finished serving a tripping penalty. Ivan Barbashev hit him with a breakout pass as he exited the box, and Hoffman tied it at 2 just 93 seconds later, deflecting Colton Parayko’s shot from the point.

Burns regained the lead for San Jose with a power-play goal with 7:54 left in the second.

St. Louis responded two minutes later with Schenn’s shot that knuckled its way across the goal line.

“Too many goals against for sure,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “We get down 2-0, we battled back. I thought our first period was actually good and you come out of there down 2-0, it’s discouraging, but I thought our guys got back in the game the second period.”

Justin Faulk credits David Perron for setting up his second goal in the #stlblues‘ win over the #SJSharks: “I didn’t really have to do much work. Just put my stick down and let him do the rest.” pic.twitter.com/v2bjEsXszz

— FOX Sports Midwest (@FSMidwest) January 19, 2021

SHARK BITES

Defenseman Radim Simek (knee) made his season debut and was paired with Nikolai Knyzhov.

BLUE LINE MOVES

The Blues placed defenseman Robert Bortuzzo (upper body) on injured reserve after he was hit by Colorado’s Valeri Nichushkin on Friday night.

Carl Gunnarsson slid into Bortuzzo’s pairing with Vince Dunn, and defensemen Niko Mikkola and Jake Walman were recalled from the taxi squad. Gunnarsson got an assist on Faulk’s goal.

St. Louis also added forward Jake Neighbors to the taxi squad, while forward Mackenzie MacEachern was assigned to the taxi squad when Walman was promoted to the active roster on Monday.

PANDEMIC PLAY

The Blues hosted around 300 selected frontline healthcare workers to sit in socially distanced areas of the arena. There was a special puck drop as the Blues saluted their work over the past 10 months.

“We were very excited to have some of the frontline workers, the people that have been doing their best and putting their best effort to keep us safe and healthy,” Faulk said. “Even if it’s a limited number of people, we’re happy we can have them and thank them for all they’ve done over the last 10 or 11 months.”

WHAT’S NEXT

The teams conclude their two-game set in St. Louis on Wednesday night.