St. Louis Blues and San Jose Sharks combine for a true Saturday night thriller

What a wild, wild game between the St. Louis Blues and the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.

On what was a busy, busy night in the National Hockey League with a grand total of 14 games being played, the highlight was no doubt the absolute bonkers contest played out between the St. Louis Blues and the San Jose Sharks, with the two teams combining for a grand total of 13 goals.

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St. Louis won the game 7-6 thanks to Marco Scandella‘s game-winner at 7:14 in the third period, the defenseman’s second goal of the contest, but it was a game that featured plenty of twists and turns and a boatload of drama too.

For starters, the Sharks went into the first intermission break with a 2-1 lead thanks to goals from Timo Meier and Evander Kane, either side of Marco Scandella’s first goal of the year, and San Jose would go on to lead on two more occasions.

It was Kane’s second goal of the game, and his seventh of the year, that sparked some drama as Blues Head Coach Craig Berube decided to pull goaltender Jordan Binnington, who had allowed four goals on just 19 shots, with Ville Husso coming in to replace him.

St. Louis Blues, San Jose Sharks combine for thriller for the ages

But, as Binnington left the ice, he caused tensions to rise after going after three Sharks players, even going after goalie Devan Dubnyk before eventually leaving the ice, but the videos of him pushing Radim Simek, shoving his stick in the face of Erik Karlsson and then taking his anger out on Dubnyk have done the rounds on social media today more than once.

With teams playing each other a hell of a lot throughout the course of this weird 2020-21 season, expect what Binnington did on his way off the ice to carry over to the next game between these two teams, and it could even spark a mini rivalry between the Blues and the Sharks if San Jose opts to go after Binnington in order to return the favor.

That was just one aspect of a crazy game, however, and it all started just 17 seconds into the contest when Timo Meier’s shot bounced off Blues defenseman Torey Krug and past Binnington, before Scandella recorded his first goal of the year with a bomb of a shot from the blueline at 6:08 in the first period.

The two teams would then go on to exchange a flurry of blows with Kane and Meier both lighting the lamp again while Sammy Blais and Brayden Schenn scored for St. Louis, before Zach Sanford made it a tied game again heading into the third period.

That’s where things really got crazy as both teams refused to back down, and it appeared this time that it was the St. Louis Blues who were in the driving seat after Mackenzie MacEachern and Ryan O’Reilly both gave their team the lead, until it was the turn of Kevin Labanc and then Logan Couture to tie things up.

However, there was always going to be a winner and it proved to be the St. Louis Blues thanks to Marco Scandella who, at 7:14 in the third period, scored what proved to be the game-winner after finishing what was a sublime feed from forward Oskar Sundqvist to give his team a 7-6 lead, and one they never gave up.

It improved the St. Louis Blues to 11-8-2 on the year and dropped the San Jose Sharks to 7-9-2 in the West Division, but whatever happens to both teams this year there is no doubt that this blockbuster, which was a true, true throwback to 80’s hockey, will live long in the memory and it was just a thrill-ride of game that gave fans everything they could have wanted and a lot more, and more of these types of games will be very welcome.