Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie The Blues took yet another small stride toward making the playoffs last night with a 4-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. While fans may have missed the excitement of another come from behind overtime victory, they likely appreciated being able to relax late in the third period rather than sitting on pins and needles.
The Blues opened the scoring just 40 seconds into the game as Patrik Berglund score his 2nd goal in the last 3 games. Alex Pietrangelo enters the offensive zone, coming down the right wall and slides the puck to Berglund who is streaking through the middle. Berglund makes a good backhand that beats Anders Nilsson.
Partik Berglund would double the lead with a short-handed goal less than 5 minutes into the 2nd period, giving him 3 goals in his last 3 games. The key to this Berglund goal was the strong play of Kyle Brodziak who was at the end of his shift. Watch the effort and play of Brodziak here.
Parayko lets a shot go from the point. Thompson deflects the puck down into the ice as he is skating away from the puck and turning around. Sobotka then deflects the deflection and Jaskin punches in the rebound.
All of the news out of the Scottrade Center was not good as Carl Gunnarsson was lost for the season midway through the 1st period with a torn ACL in his left knee. He was injured on a check into the board by Bo Horvat.
The Blue Jackets have won 10 in a row and are 25-11-2 at home this season. The Blue Jackets are similar to the Blues, scoring only 0.01 more goals per game and giving up 0.05 more goals against per game. Both also have relatively futile power plays, ranking 2nd last in the NHL, just 1 spot worse than the Blues.
Artemi Panarin leads the Blue Jackets in goals and points with 25 goals and 69 points in 75 games. Seth Jones is having a great year with 15 goals and 50 points. Sergei Bobrovsky is playing well, stopping 92.2% of the shots he has faced and posting a 2.38 goals against average.
Bobrovsky has average numbers, at least for him, against the Blues with a 91.6% save percentage and a 2.37 goals against average. Panarin has enjoyed success against the Blues though most of that was with the Blackhawks. Panarin has 10 points in 11 games against the Blues. Jones has struggled against the Blues, going pointless and -11 in 15 games.
I think everyone expects Jake Allen to get the start tonight. Allen stopped 36 of 37 shots for the victory in the game earlier this season against the Blue Jackets. His other games against the Blue Jackets have been rough, contributing to a career save percentage of 89.9% against them.
Vladimir Tarasenko has enjoyed a lot of success against the Blue Jackets with 13 points in 12 games with 7 goals. Alexander Steen has 26 points in 35 games while Jaden Schwartz has struggled with only 3 points in 10 games.
As to the lineup, expect it to be the same at forward and Jordan Schmaltz to draw in on defense. It will be interesting to see if the Blues call up Chris Butler who struggled in his most recent NHL tour or Jake Walman who has had a rough year in the AHL and has been in and out of the Binghamton Devils lineup this month.
With the Blues win last night, the moved to within 1 point of the final wild card spot. With the Ducks overtime loss, the Blues are now just 2 points behind the Ducks and the Kings and the Blues have the tie-breaker over the Ducks and could tie the Kings in ROWs with a ROW win tonight.
The Stars blew a 2 goal, 3rd period lead last night to lose in regulation. The loss essentially forces them to win all of their remaining games to have a chance at a playoff spot. Effectively, the Western Conference is down to 9 teams fighting for playoff positioning though of course one team will be left out.
The Blues are now on pace for 96.4 points. The other teams have the following point paces: Ducks - 97.3, Kings - 97.3 and Avalanche - 97.5. The Avalanche host the Golden Knights this afternoon while the Oilers host the Kings.
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.