The Blues ran into a hot goaltender tonight in Calvin Pickard. The Blues fired 42 shots on goal tonight, Pickard stopped 39 of them, but it wasn't enough as the Blues beat Colorado 3-2 in overtime.
It was the night of defensive scoring, as Kevin Shattenkirk and Alex Pietrangelo scored for the Blues in regulation, while Erik Johnson scored both Colorado goals tonight.
T.J. Oshie was the difference in overtime, as he beat Pickard just over a minute into the extra frame.
David Backes lead the Blues with six shots on goal, while Alexander Steen and Vladmir Tarasenko finished with five a piece. None of them scored however. The three goal scorers, Shattenkirk (three shots), Pietrangelo (two shots), and Oshie (two shots), made the difference tonight.
This was a solid win for the Blues, who played a very strong game tonight. Minimal defensive breakdowns, and when breakdowns happened, Jake Allen bailed them out.
Erik Johnson opened the scoring with a bomb, his fifth of the season, as he continues to play solid hockey against the Blues.
Just over a minute later, Shattenkirk answered, beating a sprawling Pickard. Shattenkirk showed a great amount of patience on his goal, as he had the chance to fire the puck immediately, but saw that Pickard was down in the two-pad stack, waited, and fired the puck up high to tie the game.
The Blues have struggled this season in the second period, but not tonight. The Blues fired 17 shots on goal in the second period, while holding the Avalanche to just six shots on goal.
Alex Pietrangelo put the Blues ahead by one, with an unassisted goal. The assist should have gone to the players on the bench, who saw the puck leaving the zone and Pietrangelo was going for a change. They gave Pietrangelo the heads up, who skated into the zone, and fired a wrist shot past the glove of Pickard. David Backes screened the Avalanche goalie perfectly on the play.
Johnson scored his second of the game just minutes later, beating Allen between the blocker and the body. This was Johnson's first career two goal game.
The third period proved nothing, so we got to see some free hockey.
Barret Jackman made an excellent play on the game winning goal. Shattenkirk fed him the puck, and it looked like Jackman was going to shoot the puck. He spotted Oshie cutting into the slot, and made a perfect pass to Oshie, who beat Pickard to secure the two points in the standings.
With Chicago losing to the Islanders, and the Predators getting shutout by the Sharks, the Blues have now jumped back into first place in the central division, and second in the western conference.
The Blues are riding a four game winning streak, and they'll take that back to the Scottrade Center as they'll take on the defending Stanley Cup champs, the Los Angeles Kings.
With tonight's fight against Jarome Iginla, Barret Jackman is now sitting at 999 penalty minutes. He's currently fourth all time on the Blues, just one away from 1,000.
Only three other Blues have registered over 1,000 penalty minutes. Brian Sutter holds the record with 1,786 PIMs, Kelly Chase is second with 1,497 PIMs, while Barclay Plager is third with 1,115 PIMs.
Jackman, will no doubt pass Plager for third all time, and will likely finish his career in that slot.
The only other active Blue on the top ten list in penalty minutes is the captain, David Backes. Backes currently holds 782 penalty minutes, which is good for ninth all time for the Blues.
Jackman has not only been racking up the penalty minutes, but he's producing as well. He has one goal and three assists this past week.
Jackman gets a lot of flack from fans who feel he needs to go. His contract expires this season and many want the Blues to move one, but fact is, Jackman is going to be a Blue all of his career. He's a solid third pairing defensemen, and really the only defensemen who plays a physical game in front of his goaltender. It puts him in the penalty box at times (just look at the numbers), but he's not going anywhere anytime soon.
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