St. Louis Blues Earn Shutout, 3-0 Character Win Over Stars

The St. Louis Blues, playing their second game in less than 24 hours after shanking their first opportunity in months to surpass the Nashville Predators for the division lead on Saturday night, came up big tonight in Dallas with a gritty win. The Blues shut out the Dallas Stars 3-0 in Dallas to open their season-long six-game road trip.

The Stars were at home after coming off a successful road trip of their own where they went 4-1-0. They came in tonight last in the Central at 32-27-10 with 74 points, but trailing the Winnepeg Jets by only six points for the final wild card spot.

Jake Allen, entering with a 6-1-1 record in his last eight games, started in goal for the Blues. After a strong start to the season, Allen surrendered nine goals in his last two starts prior to tonight. Kari Lehtonen was in goal for the Stars, who was 8-1-2 in his last 11 games and had only given up six goals in his last three starts.

The first period started fast, at a pace best-suited to the Stars’ quick offensive breaks, with Dallas outshooting the Blues 4-2 in the first six minutes. Defenseman Barret Jackman took a tripping penalty at 5:26 for the game’s first penalty. Patrik Berglund got a shot on goal on a shorthanded 2-on-1 break, and the Blues killed the penalty, allowing only one shot on goal.

Allen was sharp in the early going, later stopping a high shot by left winger Antoine Roussel with his right blocker before the game settled more into neutral-zone play. Then rookie defenseman Petteri Lindbohm took a high-sticking penalty at 9:17 of the first period. The Blues killed the penalty without allowing a shot on goal. At 12:02 the Stars’ Brett Ritchie took a high-sticking penalty, sending the Blues on their first powerplay, a listless effort in which the Blues failed to register a shot on goal.

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Allen had a close shave when he didn’t corral the puck around the 16:40 mark and Stars recently red-hot center Vernon Fiddler nearly put it in.

The Blues’ play in the first period was sluggish and largely restricted to the periphery, and being outshot 9-5 seemed to reflect the game the night before along with a travel night. Any time you can play a first period in the second of back-to-back games in another team’s rink, get doubled up on shots, and exit scoreless when the buzzer sounds, you have effectively “won” the period. Especially considering the Stars had the previous night off. Alex Pietrangelo logged 9:27 of ice time in the first period, and a whopping 25:43 over the entire game.

After the first intermission one hoped to see the Blues with a bit more jump, but the second period began titled toward the Blues’ end. In the first :37 there were three faceoffs in the Blues’ zone. Jackman got away with a trip, and the Blues committed a turnover in the middle of the ice which was shot over the net. Just 1:55 of the middle period had elapsed and Allen had already faced three shots.

The Blues’ miscues continued at 3:28 as Alexander Steen was sent off on a tripping penalty. This time, however, the team stood up, and in addition to not giving up any shots, the Blues played an aggressive and effective kill, with a shot on goal and some significant offensve play in the Stars’ zone.

More importantly, the Blues seemed to make a turn energy-wise.

Hitchcock also started juggling the lines a bit, putting forward Dmitrij Jaskin out with Lehtera and Tarasenko for a shift. Fiddler had a big scoring chance on Allen, but the Blues goalie came up with a save. Shortly after that, Steen had two great chances, fanning on the first shot and sending the second wide of the open net.

Around the ten-minute mark, defenseman Barret Jackman appeared to hurt himself after going hard into the wall and went off. Hitchcock continued juggling the lines, putting Stastny out with Steen and Oshie, and continuing to cycle the Jaskin-Lehtera-Tarasenko line. Steen took a slashing penalty at 11:53, putting Dallas on its fourth powerplay half-way through the game, which the Blues also killed off.

Around the 17:00 mark Jackman had returned and played physically. The Stars’ forward Curtis McKenzie had a fabulous scoring chance coming in but Jackman poked the puck away in probably the biggest scoring chance for either team to that point.

In the last minute Hitch sent out Olli Jokinen with Lehtera and Tarasenko, but instead Dallas very nearly got a goal as the buzzer sounded when Vernon Fiddler broke in on Allen.

Hitch started the scoreless third period with the old line standards of Backes-Steen-Oshie and Schwartz-Lehtera-Tarasenko. Tarasenko had a nice scoring chance in the first couple minutes that Lehtonen gloved. At 2:02, Paul Stastny had a high wrist shot off Lehtonen which wound up sitting in the blue paint, but Dallas D-man Jason Demers bailed Lehtonen out, swiping the puck away. At 3:33 Backes and McKenzie went off for matching roughing minors, resulting in 4-on-4 play in a game that had been characterized by multiple defensive breakdowns on both ends, especially in the opening minutes of the third period.

At 4:26 Tarasenko took a pass from Paul Stastny on the left side, cycled around to the middle, then cut in to the left in the slot, picking his spot between two defenders with a nifty move and and scoring the first goal of the game and his 34th of the year to put the Blues up 1-0. Tarasenko has lit up the Dallas Stars in games this year, notching a hat trick and an assist in their first game, which the Blues won 4-3, as well as a goal in their second game, a losing effort back on December 27, 2014. Tonight he scored the first and, ultimately, game-winning goal.

At 5:07 Oshie took yet another high-sticking penalty against the Blues, putting Dallas on its fifth powerplay of the game. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who got the first assist on Tarasenko’s goal, saved a certain Dallas goal at the very end of the man-advantage as Allen lost the puck behind him, and Pietrangelo swatted the puck out of harm’s way.

Allen continued to make clutch saves, including another prime scoring chance by Roussel, who, along with Fiddler, had the best chances for the home team to score since the opening puck-drop. Then, Tarasenko was sent off for tripping at 11:17. The Blues, having surely made things tougher than they needed to be, had a solid penalty kill, successfully killing off their sixth consecutive penalty, none of which were cut short.

The Berglund-Jaskin-Stastny line had a strong shift with a couple great scoring chances and only great goaltending kept the Blues off the board. T.J. Oshie was brought down by Vernon Fiddler on a scoring chance at 16:11 and the Blues went on only their second powerplay of the game. Off a pass from Pietrangelo, Alexander Steen scored a laser one-timer powerplay goal over Lehtonen’s right shoulder at 16:45.

Dallas pulled their goaltender with 2:11 left in the game and Oshie scored an empty-netter to secure the win at 18:14, with assists by Backes and Steen.

Jake Allen earned his fourth shutout of the campaign, making 28 saves.

The second night of back-to-back games is always a tough out, but this win against a Dallas team that is always competitive was especially huge after such a demoralizing loss the night before. Barret Jackman and Alex Pietrangelo both had very impressive games tonight. Coming on the heels of last night’s long-awaited, blown opportunity to pass up the Nashville Predators in the standings, the Blues showed that, although there might be bumps in the road, they possess the character to prevail through adversity.

Let us know what you think of the Blues’ performance in this game!

Next: Ken Hitchcock Wins 700th Game Against Flyers, Berube

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