Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie The Blues continue to take more strides to making the playoffs, this time with a 3-2 victory over the Sharks on Wednesday. The win put the Blues into the 1st wild card spot both in actual points and in points percentage.
Of course, the Blues used overtime yet again for the victory, their 4th overtime win in the 5 game winning streak.
Evander Kane opened the scoring just under seven minutes into the game. Colton Parayko seems to get caught a bit puck watching which leaves too much gap from Kane. Kane takes advantage of it and beats Jake Allen with a shot.
With the win, the Blues are on pace for 98.2 points while the Kings are now on pace for 97.8, the Avalanche for 97.1 and the Ducks for 96.9
Tonight the Blues are in Las Vegas to take on the Pacific leading Knights. The Knights are 27-10-2 at home this season but are only 3-4 in their last 7 home games and two of their wins came against the lowly Canucks the struggling Flames. They are 5-3-2 in their last 10 games but only 1 of those wins comes against teams in a playoff position.
The Blues and Knights have split games so far this season with the Knights winning 3-2 in overtime in Vegas and the Blues winning 2-1 in St. Louis. The Blues have controlled the vast majority of the play, outshooting the Knights 88-55.
The Knights are the 3rd highest scoring team in the league and 7th best in goal against per game. They are ranked 8th on the power play and 11th on the penalty kill. They are 7th best in shots against per game even though the Blues are averaging almost 45% more than their season average against them.
The Knights are led by Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson who have 73 and 70 points, respectively. Karlsson has 40 goals. Former Blue David Perron isn’t far behind with 66 points in 70 games. Reilly Smith has 60 points in 66 games. Karlsson, Machessault and Smith are a crazy combined +109.
The Blues have a 3 game road winning streak and have won 6 in a row while going 8-2 in their last 10 games. I expect Jake Allen to get the start again and Scottie Upshall to enter the lineup with Tage Thompson exiting.
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.