Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie The Blues won their second game in a row, defeating the New Jersey Devils at home in a shootout by a score of 3-2. The Devils are no slouch this year, sitting 2nd in the Metropolitan division and 10-5-4 on the road after the loss.
Vladimir Tarasenko opened the scoring a little over halfway through the 1st period. Brayden Schenn started the play with a strong forecheck of Sami Vatanen who makes a terrible giveaway to Scottie Upshall at the far point.
Upshall takes a shot from just inside the right circle. Tarasenko deflects the shot wide but the rebound comes back to him off the back wall and he goes quickly from backhand to forehand to top shelf. Watch the whole highlight here.
The Devils tied the game almost exactly a period later on a brilliant deflection by rookie Nico Hischier, his 8th goal of the season. Watch it here:
With a little under 2 minutes left in the 2nd period, Vladimir Sobotka gives the Blues the lead again, deflecting a Tage Thompson shot past Keith Kinkaid. While Sobotka’s deflection was good, Thompson’s move along the wall creates the goal. Thompson acts like he is going to go to the point with the puck, tricking Kyle Palmieri to turn to cover the point. As Palmieri bites, Thompson comes off the wall, pulling the puck to the net and releasing a strong wrist shot that Sobotka redirects into the net. Watch his move here:
The Devils tied the score just over a minute into the third period on a power play goal after a bad penalty by Alexander Steen. Taylor Hall corrals a rebound on the far side, near the goal in and banks his shot in off Carter Hutton’s arm. You can watch the goal here.
About 5 minutes later, the Devils appeared to score to take the lead but the Blues correctly challenged and the goal was disallowed as an offside call was missed. I’d rather not have these plays challengeable and just allow Toronto to overturn obvious missed offside calls (in a short, set time before the normal faceoff after a goal) but the rules are what they are and the result was correct.
Hutton saved his best for overtime, making this highlight reel save:
In the shootout, Tarasenko and Schenn both scored with Hutton stopped both Devils, earning the shootout win and the needed two points.
Tonight’s test won’t get any easier as the Blues host the Western Conference point and point percentage leading Vegas Golden Knights. The Knights have earned an amazing 77% of their points to date, are riding an 8 game winning streak, have won 12 of their last 13 and have points in their last 13 games.
The Knights are keyed by their offense, 2nd best in goals per game. Their defense has been average, ranked 12th in goals against per game. Their special teams have been below average with the power play ranked 19th and their penalty kill 21st.
Their home record is by far the best in the NHL at 17-2-1. They have been a lot more vulnerable on the road where they have been good but not spectacular at 10-7-1.
Jonathan Marchessault leads their offense with 15 goals and 37 points in 35 games. William Karlsson isn’t far behind with 20 goals and 33 points in 38 games. Former Blue David Perron is also doing well with 31 points in 32 games. Marachessault was rewarded this week with a 6 year, $30 million contract extension.
The Blues will be looking to avenge their 3-2 overtime loss in Vegas where the Blues lost even though they thoroughly dominated play. Malcom Subban and Oscar Dansk combined in the victory with Dansk coming in after Subban was injured.
Tonight, expect Marc-Andre Fleury to get the start in net for the Knights. Fleury has a career 2.27 goals against average and 92.6% save percentage against the Blues.
For the Blues, Carter Hutton looks to get his third consecutive start. It sounds like Vince Dunn is out sick and Samuel Blais is still out due to injury. Zach Sanford has been seen doing skating drills (cardio work) this week though is still a long ways off from returning to hockey.
Expect the lines to start like this tonight:
Forwards Scottie Upshall - Brayden Schenn – Vladimir Tarasenko Vladimir Sobotka - Paul Stastny – Tage Thompson Patrik Berglund – Kyle Brodziak - Alexander Steen Dmitrij Jaskin - Ivan Barbashev – Magnus Paajarvi
Defense Jay Bouwmeester - Alex Pietrangelo Joel Edmundson - Colton Parayko Carl Gunnarsson - Robert Bortuzzo
Goalie Carter Hutton
It’s a great day for hockey.
Fellow Hockeybuzz bloggers Nashville Predator's Paul McCann, Winnipeg Jet's Peter Tessier and Minnesota Wild's Dan Wallace have generously agreed to a friendly charity wager. We were hoping to do the whole division but don't have it fully represented yet. The blogger whose team finishes the highest the standings at the end of the year gets to pick a charity to whom the others will donate in their name.