On Tuesday, the Blues blew a two goal, third period lead before winning the game on the 1st shift of overtime. The victory set a franchise record for consecutive wins at 11 games and brought their record to 15-2-1 in their last 18 games.
The Blues opened the scoring midway through the 1st period after Jake Muzzin wiped out, creating a turnover. Somehow Tyler Bozak and Jaden Schwartz ended up by themselves in front of the net. Bozak makes a good pass to Schwartz who one-times the puck past Frederik Andersen.
About seven and a half minutes later, Colton Parayko doubled the lead on a power play shot from the point that few noticed went in until further review.
Andersen was very good in the 1st, stopping 17 of 19 shots and being the only reason the Leafs were somewhat still in the game.
Both teams played a bit of a loose 2nd period, giving up a combined 29 shots but both goaltenders played well, stopping every shot.
Zach Hyman cut the lead in half just over six minutes into the 3rd period when Joel Edmundson deflected Hyman’s centering pass by Jordan Binnington.
Auston Matthews would get credit for the game tying goal about 30 seconds later when a shot from Nikita Zaitsev deflected in off his skate.
Craig Berube used a goaltender interference challenge on the play but I believe he did that only because it gave him a longer timeout.
The game would head to overtime where Ryan O’Reilly made a very astute and important defensive play, preventing what likely would have been an easy wrap-around style goal before coming down and scoring the game winning goal.
Tarasenko’s point streak ended at 12 games but he sure seemed happy at the end of the game. Unfortunately, it appears Brayden Schenn sustained an upper body injury in the game though his last shift was his regular shift that ended with 23 seconds left in the 3rd period.
Tonight the Blues visit the Dallas Stars who have lost three in a row but are impressive 18-9-2 at home and have won four out of their last five at home. The Stars struggled are offensive, ranking 3rd worst in goals per game. Their defense has been excellent, 3rd best in goal against per game and 6th best on the penalty kill.
Tyler Seguin leads the stars with 55 point in 59 games while Alexander Radulov has been good with 46 points in 49 games. Jamie Benn has struggled with 39 points in 58 games. Of course, Benn has been a Blues killer with 34 points in 37 games. Seguin has 22 in 27 games.
Anton Khudobin will be in net for the Stars. He is 1-0-1 and has a 90.2% save percentage against the Blues.
The Blues are 12-5-1 in their last 18 games against the Stars. Tyler Bozak has 2 goals and 7 assists in his last 8 games against the Stars. Vladimir Tarasenko has 22 points in 25 games including 15 goals. Alex Pietrangelo has also enjoyed success with 27 points in 36 games.
With Schenn out, the lineup will be juggled. Perhaps like this?
Schwartz - O'Reilly – Tarasenko
Thomas - Bozak – Steen
Sanford - Sundqvist - Maroon
Fabbri - Barbashev - MacEachern
Edmundson - Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester - Parayko
Dunn - Bortuzzo
Binnington
The Blues really have started to put themselves in a good spot as they now lead the 2nd wild card team, the Avalanche, by 8 points with a game in hand. They only trail the Predators by 6 points and have 3 games in hand.
NHL Champions for Charity
We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. One charity I’ll highlight is Best Buddies Tennessee
https://www.bestbuddies.org/tennessee/from your Predators’s Blogger
Paul McCann. Best Buddies Tennessee is dedicated to establishing a volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a side note, I recently got to experience a Best Buddies even in the St. Louis area that was led by the Eureka high school football team. It was a lot of fun and brought a lot of joy to those involved.
It’s a great day for hockey.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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