Blues vs. Blue Jackets: Jimmy Snuggerud Scores Twice, Jonatan Berggren's Rebound Ends a Three-Game Skid

Jonatan Berggren had been waiting all night for the puck to find him. At 9:33 of the third period, with a delayed penalty coming against Columbus, it finally did. Colton Parayko flung it from below the goal line into the blue paint, Jet Greaves robbed Mason McTavish, and the rebound sat there for Berggren like a gift nobody bothered to wrap. One lift later, Enterprise Center was shaking.

That was Berggren's first goal of the season, it broke a 3-3 tie, and Pavel Buchnevich's empty-netter turned it into a 5-3 win for the St. Louis Blues over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night. Jimmy Snuggerud scored twice, Dylan Holloway had three assists, and a team that had gone three straight games without a win finally exhaled.

Columbus Owned the First, Then Handed Over the Keys

For 20 minutes this looked like a Blue Jackets road show. Columbus was playing the second half of a back-to-back after beating Pittsburgh in a shootout at home on Friday, and you would never have known it. The Blue Jackets outshot St. Louis 10-4 in the opening period and cashed in twice late.

Erik Gudbranson drove the left side and centered a puck into the slot, Sean Monahan whacked at it, and the shot clipped Valeri Nichushkin on its way in at 16:10. Monahan, fittingly, picked up an assist in his 900th NHL game. Then, with 12 seconds left in the frame, Kent Johnson snapped a wrist shot from the left circle into the top corner off feeds from Adam Fantilli and Zach Werenski. It was 2-0, and the Blues looked like a team still carrying the hangover from the week.

The second period opened with Mathieu Olivier and Ross Johnston dropping the gloves 21 seconds in, and from there the ice tilted hard toward Columbus' end. Jake Neighbours cleaned up the rebound of a Justin Barron slap shot at 6:10. At 9:02, Philip Broberg curled through the left circle around Cole Sillinger and found Snuggerud, who had slipped behind Werenski, alone at the back post for a tap-in.

Three and a half minutes after that, Robert Thomas dropped the puck to Snuggerud in the right circle, and his wrister squeezed through traffic and in off the far post. Three goals in 6:22 of game time, and suddenly St. Louis led 3-2.

"I tried going low," Snuggerud said, per the NHL's recap. "There were like four guys there. It's a good screen and just happened to sneak through."

Columbus managed only 13 shots across the final two periods, and its coach did not sugarcoat why. "The thought process got away from us," Rick Bowness said, "and the intensity necessary left us."

The Turning Point: A Delayed Call and a Loose Puck

The Blue Jackets did not go quietly. At 6:51 of the third, Charlie Coyle fired from a sharp angle, Jordan Binnington could not corral it, and Sillinger poked the rebound home from the slot to make it 3-3. That was Sillinger's second of the season, and for about three minutes the momentum belonged to the visitors again.

Then Olivier tripped Berggren, the referee's arm went up, and the Blues kept the puck long enough to make the whistle irrelevant. Parayko's centering feed, the McTavish chance, the rebound, the finish. The Blues never needed the power play, and Berggren was not complaining about skipping it.

"No, we'll take a goal instead," Berggren said. "Lucky bounce, but yeah, I think as a team we deserved the win. Lucky we got one."

Buchnevich iced it at 19:17 with an unassisted empty-netter, his first of the season, and the building could finally relax.

Snuggerud, Holloway and a Goalie Bouncing Back

Snuggerud was the headliner. Both of his goals came in the second-period surge, pushing him to three on the season, and both came from being in exactly the right place at the right time. He played 15:13 and made every shift count.

Holloway was the quiet engine. He picked up an assist on all three second-period goals, the kind of night that does not make the highlight package but absolutely makes the film session. The NHL's game notes say he now has seven points, one goal and six assists, in six career games against Columbus. Somebody check whether the Blue Jackets owe him money.

Binnington finished with 20 saves on 23 shots. He was not perfect, and the Sillinger goal came off a rebound he could not control, but this was a bounce-back after the AP noted he allowed six goals in a loss at Colorado in his first game of the season.

On the other side, Werenski logged 28:13 with an assist, Greaves stopped 22 of 26 shots, and Columbus won the faceoff battle 35-25 while blocking 19 shots to St. Louis' 8. Monahan summed up the evening bluntly. "We came out pretty strong on a back-to-back and got away from our game," he said.

Stats That Matter

• 10-4: Columbus' shot edge in the first period, followed by just 13 shots the rest of the way.
• 3: Holloway assists, one on each of the three second-period goals that flipped the game.
• 6:22: How long it took St. Louis to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead.
• 35-25: Columbus on faceoffs, a 58.3 percent edge that did not translate.
• 0-for-1: Each team's power play. Seven goals came at even strength, and the eighth went into an empty net.

What It Means

St. Louis improves to 2-2-1 and snaps a three-game skid that included a 6-1 loss at Colorado, a 4-2 loss at Chicago and a 3-2 overtime loss at home to San Jose on Thursday. It also ends a run of six straight losses to Columbus, according to the AP. Getting a home win heading into a three-game road trip that opens Tuesday in Ottawa is not nothing.

Columbus drops to 2-2-0 in its first road game of the season. The first period was a blueprint, and the next 40 minutes were a warning about what happens when a back-to-back catches up with you. The Blue Jackets host Florida on Tuesday.

Closing Take

Berggren's winner was the hockey version of finding a twenty in last winter's coat pocket: you did nothing special to earn it, but you are absolutely spending it. The Blues earned plenty more than that in the second period, though, and Berggren knew which part mattered. "A little bit of luck, but yeah, I'll take it," he said. After three games without a win, so will St. Louis.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and game notes as reported by NHL.com.