Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

Blues win their 9th in a row, face a big game in Minnesota

February 17, 2019, 10:21 AM ET [9 Comments]
Jason Millen
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


The Blues shut out the Colorado Avalanche 3-0 for their second consecutive shutout, extending their winning streak to 9 games and bringing their record to 13-2-1 in their last 16 games and 12-3-1 in their last 16 road games.

Jake Allen was fantastic stopping all 32 shots he faced and keeping the game scoreless until Vladimir Tarasenko scored four minutes into the 3rd period on a very nice passing play by Brayden Schenn and Ryan O’Reilly.


Less than a minute later, Jake Allen would make a big save and an errant shot would send the Blues back the other way, allowing Oskar Sundqvist to hit a streaking Zach Sanford as he drove to the net, deflectin the puck into the net.


Allen would slam the door shut and Jaden Schwarz would get the puck after an errant shot by Tarasenko on the empty and buries his attempt for the final goal, his 2nd empty net goal of his last three goals.

Tarasenko extended his point streak to 11 games with 10 goals and 9 assists. He has 6 goals and 4 assists in his last 4 games. He had seven shots in the game. Robert Thomas didn’t have any points but did have two takeaways.

Today the Blues visit the Minnesota Wild. The Wild have been struggling, going 3-4-3 in their last 10 games and have a losing record at home at 13-11-5 (13 wins, 16 losses). The Wild have lost 4 in a row at home (0-2-2) and five of their last six and have lost three in a row overall going 0-2-1 in those three.

The Wild are only 23rd in goals per game and 14th in goals against per game. The Wild have the 12th best power play and the 12th best penalty kill. It’s interesting that both the Blues and Wild are in the top 5 in shots against with the Wild 5th and the Blues 3rd.

Zach Parise leads the Wild with 49 points in 57 games. Ryan Suter leads the defense with 40 points in 58 games. Devan Dubnyk has a 90.9% save percentage this season.

Devan Dubnyk has a career 89.8% save percentage. Jason Zucker has 15 points in 18 games against the Blues while Eric Staal has 21 points in 25 games.

Tarasenko has 21 points and 10 goals in 24 games against the Wild. Schwartz has 20 points and 10 goals in 24 games while Brayden Schenn has 10 points in 14 games.

With Alexander Steen in St. Louis for the birth of his daughter, expect Robby Fabbri to get in his second game in a row. With Fabbri in, expect the lines to be this:
Schenn - O'Reilly – Tarasenko
Schwartz - Bozak – Fabbri
Sanford - Sundqvist - Maroon
MacEachern - Barbashev - Thomas
Edmundson - Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester - Parayko
Dunn - Bortuzzo
Binnington

Carl Gunnarsson has been placed on IR and Sammy Blais has been recalled.

The Blues are starting to put themselves in a great spot and losses by the Predators and Stars last night helped their cause. A win today over the Wild would put them 7 points ahead of the 2nd wild card with a game in hand. If they win their 4 games in hand with the Predators and beat the Predators next week, the Blues would leapfrog into 2nd place. Oh my what a difference a couple of months make.

NHL Champions for Charity
We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. One charity I’ll highlight is Meagan’s Walk http://meaganswalk.com from your Blackhawk’s Blogger Justin Lowe. Meagan’s Walk seeks to bring hope and awareness to cancerous brain tumors, the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children and young people.

It’s a great day for hockey.
Join the Discussion: » 9 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Jason Millen
» There is no quit in these Blues
» Helter Skelter Game 3
» Blues play a stronger game two and keys to game three
» Blues play weak in Game One
» Often less is more at the trade deadline