For the second time in a 48-hour span, the last two Stanley Cup champions will meet again.
On Tuesday night at Enterprise Center, the Tampa Bay Lighting jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first period, but the Blues rallied back on goals from Ryan O'Reilly, Logan Brown and Ivan Barbashev to tie the game. O'Reilly scored again in the shootout, whileJordan Binnington stopped all three shooters he faced to seal a dramatic come-from-behind 4-3 win.
"I think we just kind of reset on the bench," O'Reilly said of the team after falling behind 3-0. "There were bad bounces and they kind of were just shooting everything, going to the net, getting chaos, got some goals early and put us on our heels. But it was a good thing we settled and took a deep breath, all of us, and started to chip away, started getting back, winning battles and just kind of getting on our toes a bit more and started to build it."
"Just lots of leadership in that room," added Brown, a St. Louis native who was playing in his first game as a Blue on Tuesday. "Just a lot of hockey to play, and a lot of time to get it back. This is a great team, so I think we can score goals when we play that way. Just no panic in our game."
Thursday's matchup at Amalie Arena will be the final regular-season meeting between the teams in 2021-22.
The Blues will be without Binnington, who was added to the NHL's COVID-19 protocols on Thursday morning. The Blues have recalled goalie Charlie Lindgren from the Springfield Thunderbirds.
