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Blues Win Again, Courtesy Of The Shootout |
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The Blues jumped out to an early lead, as Ryan Reaves and David Backes scored in the first four minutes, chasing Anton Khudobin from the net.
Cam Ward came into the game, and nearly allowed another goal on the first shot he faced. Vladimir Tarasenko beat Ward, but couldn't beat the post, and it gave Carolina some life.
Justin Faulk and Ryan Murphy scored the only two goals for Carolina, as they couldn't find a way to beat Allen for a third time, and couldn't solve him (and the post) in the shootout, falling to the Blues yet again.
Ryan Reaves continues his hot streak. He's been flying recently, and now he's adding some offense to the physicality he brings. With goals in back-to-back games, Reaves has set a new career high in goals with five on the season. He led the Blues in shots tonight with five, and his confidence is at an all time high.
David Backes has upped his point streak to nine games, scoring eight goals, and eight assists in those nine games. Tonight was a milestone night tonight for Backes, as he tied Blues great, Bobby Plager, for sixth all time games played list by 615 games with the Blues. Gary Unger is next on the list, with 662 games played for the Blues.
He's got quite a few more games to play to be 1st all time though, as that title is held by Bernie Federko, at 927 games. If you include playoffs, Federko played 1,018 games with the Blues.
Barret Jackman is moving closer to closer for second all time for the Blues. He's sitting at 746 games played for the Blues, while he's chasing Brian Sutter, who played 779 games with St. Louis.
Alex Pietrangelo hit a milestone tonight as well, reaching the 200 point plateau, with an assist on Backes' goal in the first period.
Marcel Goc recorded his first point as a Blue tonight, assisting on the Reaves goal. He's been a welcomed addition to the Blues fourth line. His puck moving ability along with his defensive play has really helped Steve Ott and Reaves as well. Ott and Reaves can play more of a reckless game physically, but they are now getting offensive chances as well. Lapierre wasn't a detriment to the Blues fourth line, but Goc is just an all around better player when it comes to playing with Ott and Reaves. The line has become dangerous, which everyone wants out of their fourth line.
The Blues started hot, slowed down in the second and the first half of the third. They picked things up, and got solid goaltending in tonight's win. The two goals Allen allowed, both came off screens, including an deflection off of Backes' stick on the second goal.
There was a scary moment for Allen, as the Hurricanes dumped the puck into the zone, and it originally looked like it was going wide, so Allen was just standing in the net. The puck took a weird bounce about five feet out from the net, and ended up bouncing off the post, behind Allen, and out the other side. This came with under five minutes to go in the game, and would have given Carolina the game winning goal. After the Oliver Ekman-Larsson (ARZ) goal that he scored on Jonathan Bernier (TOR) from the opposite goal line last night, there was almost two huge goalie gaffs in back-to-back nights in the NHL. Allen got lucky, and I bet next time he'll hold his post on dump ins.
The Blues are off tomorrow, but are back at it in Washington on Sunday. It's unknown if Jori Lehtera or Patrik Berglund will be back on Sunday, I wouldn't expect Berglund to be back, btu Lehtera is a possibility. If neither play, expect Ty Rattie to suit up again tonight. He had a lackluster showing tonight, playing just nine minutes without any shots on goal. He didn't have the puck on his stick that often to do much either.