St. Louis Blues Give Islanders Repeat Performance, Win 6-3

The St. Louis Blues (19-8-2) defeated the New York Islanders (19-10-0) 6-3 in St. Louis tonight. This meeting is the second of two regular season games with the first being five days prior on the 6th. In their first game the Blues won 6-4 after being down by three goals in the first period. Jake Allen was pulled and replaced by Martin Brodeur who earned his first win as a Blue. Jake Allen got another chance at the Islanders tonight with a start in goal. Also; David Backes, Jay Bouwmeester and Alexander Steen returned to the lineup after missing games due to injuries.

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In their off days since since their Monday game against the Panthers the Blues fell back to the number three position due to victories from Chicago and Nashville. The Blues would not have been able to improve their position in the Central Division standings tonight because Chicago and Nashville also won their games tonight to hold their respective places. Tonight’s win allowed the Blues to keep on the leaders’ heels while maintaining a buffer from the 4th place Winnipeg Jets.

GAME RECAP

The game started with the Blues controlling most of the early play. After 5:15 Brian Straight was put in the box for interference. At 5:58 Alexander Steen scored a power play goal from the blue line to put the Blues up 1-0. Kevin Shattenkirk and Vladimir Tarasenko earned assists. At 9:25 play stopped after Jaroslav Halak was hit in the neck by a shot. Ryan Reaves and Eric Boulton dropped their gloves at 10:42 but the linesmen stopped the fight. Both received unsportsmanlike minors.

Jori Lehtera earned a hooking minor at 11:04 to give the Islanders a 4 on 3 advantage. The Blues killed the penalty but gave up three shots. At 14:18 Barret Jackman scored from the top of the Islanders’ left circle increasing the Blues’ lead 2-0. Alexander Steen and Maxim Lapierre earned assists. Shortly after that Chris Butler was called for high-sticking. The Blues killed the penalty allowing two shots. They ended the period with a 2-0 lead.

The Blues continued their control at the start of the second period. At 9:12 Steve Ott took a penalty for slashing. The Blues killed the penalty allowing only one shot. With six minutes left in the period the Islanders began their strongest offensive push of the game. At 16:03 John Tavares scored off a defensive zone face-off to make the score 2-1. With five seconds left Mikhail Grabovski scored off another face-off to tie the game at 2.

The Blues started the third period with increased pressure, though it was short-lived and the Islanders evened play. After 4:32 of play Steen scored off a rebound to regain the lead 3-2. T.J. Oshie and Jackman earned assists. Play was back and forth until 15:47 when Patrik Berglund fed Oshie from behind the net, allowing Oshie to score and take increase the lead 4-2. Berglund and Alex Pietrangelo earned assists. Cal Clutterbuck was called for slashing on the next play.

At 17:48 Paul Stastny scored a power play goal to give the Blues a 5-2 lead. Backes and Oshie received assists. Kyle Okposo scored on the next play to close in on the lead 5-3. With 1:25 the Islanders pulled Halak from the net. Then with 1:04 left Jaden Schwartz scored an empty net goal to make the score 6-3. With 20 seconds left Lapierre and Clutterbuck went to the box for roughing. The Blues closed the game with their 6-3 lead.

HOW THEY PLAYED

With the exception of the last six minutes of the second period, the Blues played an excellent game tonight.

First, it became apparent how much the Blues needed their injured players when they started to struggle in the absence of Jay Bouwmeester and Alexander Steen. It became even more apparent how much those two are needed with their return. Steen played his best game to date by scoring two goals and all around keeping the offensive plays tight. Watching Bouwmeester in his return tonight was a lot like watching the unique goal-tending abilities of Martin Brodeur. Bouwmeester brought back is invaluable speed, reach and lateral movement. When he was on the ice we didn’t see the defensive mishaps common in the last few games.

Overall though, all lines played a very controlled game with tic-tac-toe plays and fewer missed passes. This was especially true with the first line. It is always good when Steen, Backes and Oshie work as a unit. We can’t forget the fourth line either. Ott, Reaves and Lapierre have been semi-producers who have added secondary goals when the other lines weren’t working. Despite no goals tonight, these three not only enforced the game but maintained pressure and made plays. Lapierre is proving to be an excellent heads-up player.

200% is a good number. A while back the commentators said that a great way to measure special team performances is to add the power play and penalty kill percentages. Anything over 105% means you did well. 200% is perfect. Considering there were two advantages and three kills that the Blues worked in their favor this 200% is an achievement. The team has struggled on kills a little more than power plays prior to tonight. Of the three kills the Blues made the Islanders less and less productive by reducing their shots 3 then 2 then 1 respectively. During the last penalty kill the Blues maintained offensive pressure for most of the second minute.

This is the sort of game we have seen from the Blues in the past and hopefully this is what we can expect from them from here on out. They aren’t relying solely on the performance of Vladimir Tarasenko and his linemates, they aren’t making defensive turnovers and they are making good use of the chances they receive. Let’s hope they keep it up.

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3. 106. 6. 99. Final

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