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Everything just seems to be going the way the St. Louis Blues want them to lately.
The full weight of hefty expectations has been put squarely on the backs of five skaters and one goalie. They continued carrying the load Tuesday night as they defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 in regulation.
As most games have gone so far this season Ken Hitchcock rolled his top line of Alexander Steen, David Backes, and TJ Oshie along with the top pairing of Jay Bouwmeester and Alex Pietrangelo against the oppositions best. In this contest that was Evander Kane, Olli Jokinen, and Blake Wheeler.
This matchup was closely followed early on until the Blues 4th line opened the scoring. Brenden Morrow gathered a rebound off Orendj Pavelec of the Jets from a Ryan Reaves shot for his second goal of the season. His first since opening night on October 3rd.
In the back half of the first period a peculiar situation lead to Winnipeg's typing goal. Forward Bryan Little collided with Alex Pietrangelo in the Jet's far corner. When the bodies cleared the officials gave two minutes to Derek Roy for interference and another two to Morrow for roughing. With 31 seconds left in the minors Wheeler chipped in his fifth goal.
A choppy second period resulted in no goals.
It wasn't till four minutes in the to the third that Pietrangelo broke the tie. Steen carried the puck, and several Jets defenders, across the blueline in to the near corner. The puck would pinball around till it ended up on the stick of Oshie on the opposite site of the zone. His fake shot and dish to Petro left a gaping net to finish for his second of the season.
The see-saw would continue.
During Devin Setoguchi's minor for elbowing Little struck against the Blues again. This time he finished a 2-on-0 short handed opportunity with help Andrew Ladd for his 7th goal of the season.
St. Louis would get the better chances to take a lead in the remainder of the final 20 minute set. If not for Pavelec absorbing shots as he did, thanks in part to the high frequency in that they hit the logo on his sweater, the score would have swung in a favorable direction for the home team much sooner.
It wasn't until the 19 minute mark that Steen would keep his torrid goal scoring pace up. A broken play on a their sixth and final man advantage lead to the puck finding his stick in the slot. A flick of the wrist on the backhand later the Blues would go up by a goal till the final horn blared.
Blues netminder Jaroslav Halak improved his record to 7-1-1 by allowing just two goals on 23 shots against. On the flip side Pavelec allowed three goals on 33 shots against. Both were able to handle shots above leg level while in the butterfly, but low shots were much more difficult to handle. The first goal of the game was due to Pavelec's lack of rebound control and Halak was spared more than a few times for making the same mistake.
Bouwmeester and Pietrangelo logged 26:24 and 27:15 of ice time respectively. At least 7 minutes of that was 5 on 5 time against the Jokinen line. Effective the defenseman were as they held the powerful forwards pointless at even strength.
Reaves was credited with five hits even though he only saw 10 shifts and a hair over 5 minutes of ice time.
Jordan Leopold and Roman Polak took more shifts than the Barrett Jackman and Kevin Shattenkirk pairing. Partly because they were executing so well, but also because Jackman was himself. In each of his first three shifts his efforts led to a turnover. In one case later in the game an errant and ill advised stretch pass was picked off easily and went back the other way so quickly that it forced Shattenkirk to take a slashing minor to prevent what looked to be a sure goal in the second period.
Steen now has the league lead in goals with 11 on 33 shots on goal through 10 games. He has 15 goals in his last 18 games going back to last season.
The Blues now have four players with at least as many points as games played: Steen 15 points, Backes 11 points, Oshie and Pietrangelo 10 points.
Chris Stewart didn't record a point on the score sheet, but made a positive impact on the game. He earned over 10 minutes of ice time at even strength and the Blues generated 14 Corsi For compared to seven Corsi Against. It was a situation set up for his success as he spent most of that time going up against Mark Scheifele, Michael Frolik, Matt Halischuk, Adam Pardy, and Mark Stuart. Smaller forwards and less skilled defenseman he can use his physical edge to his advantage.
This was the last game Maxim Lapierre was required to sit out do to his five game suspension for hitting San Jose's Dan Boyle. He can return to the lineup tomorrow.
Former Blues forward Anthony Peluso was scratched. No chance for a big bout with Reaves.
This was another evening where the calls from officials were confusing. Just about as much as the strike zone in the World Series. Early on every little ticky dot infraction seemed to be whistled. Some that weren't even seen we're, too (the Roy interference call to allow the 5 on 3). As the game went in the trend changed. So much so that a clear trip of Oshie in the offensive zone that allowed Ladd to break free to set up the SHG by Little went uncalled. Another strange situation was when Oshie was bear hugged by Tobias Enstrom and the near official, about five feet away, didn't make the call, but the back official back by the benches did.
The Blues are off till Friday, November 1st when they take on the Florida Panthers on their turf.
Must See Replay
Petro's goal was a thing of beauty made possible by Steen and Oshie.
Thanks for reading. Look for an opinion/analysis post on the good and the bad todate tomorrow.
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