St. Louis Blues Have What It Takes to End Stars’ Streak

The St. Louis Blues came off a big weekend in Florida flying, but were running into a buzzsaw in the Dallas Stars. No sweat.

The first period didn’t get off to a very good start. The Blues spent almost eight minutes of the opening 12 on the penalty kill. If not for Brian Elliott and some sparkling defense, the Blues could have easily been behind by one or two goals.

Instead, they ended the first frame even and probably should have been up by a goal. Once again, the unselfish nature of this team came back to bite them as Scottie Upshall should have shot the puck on a shorthanded 2 on 0. The end result was a tipped puck that rolled off Troy Brouwer‘s stick and missed an empty net.

Brouwer was Mr. Shorthanded as he almost scored when the Blues were down a man early in the third. Unfortunately, Brouwer put it right into the breadbasket of Kari Lehtonen. Often times, missing those kinds of chances are things that haunt you in a loss when you’re playing a team as quality as the Dallas Stars are, but not so on this night.

More from Editorials

• St. Louis Blues Need Kasperi Kapanen To Be On Best Behavior
• Hayes’ Debut And Other Bold Predictions for the St. Louis Blues
• St. Louis Blues Captaincy Is Suddenly A Huge Problem For 2023-24
• St. Louis Blues National Games Cause More Problems Than They’re Worth
• St. Louis Blues Brayden Schenn Has To Be An Impact Player In 2023-24

The Blues were the beneficiary of some much needed luck very early in the second period and Jaden Schwartz got his second goal of the season. Schwartzy put it into an empty net after a dump-in richocetted off the official’s skate. Lehtonen had gone behind the net and left the goal untended for the easy goal.

The Blues made that lead hold up for the majority of the remaining regulation time, but just could not find that insurance goal. They had some good chances, including several attempt on a five-on-three powerplay but just couldn’t get that final puck or pass to click.

You could tell this game really meant something to the Blues though. With the exception of a lull by both teams in the middle of the third, the Blues really pressed and checked and played hard in every aspect. They played like the LA Kings played against the Blues a few playoff seasons ago. Jay Bouwmeester even laid a man out with an absolutely glorious hip check on the wall.

Despite the passion with which the Blues played, they had to rely on the brilliance of their goaltending again. Elliott stood on his head several times and almost surely improved on his already league-leading goals against average.

One goal wasn’t enough however as Dallas tied the game late on. Elliott denied the long shot, but the rebound couldn’t be corralled. The Stars found the puck with the Blues scrambling in front and Janmark got the equalizer with under seven to go.

St. Louis, again, had to kill off a penalty to end the period, but earned themselves a powerplay of their own going into overtime when Alexander Steen was interfered with. That was all they would need as they found the winner fairly quickly in the extra frame.

The Blues powerplay initially looked too similar to the weak squad that could not even enter the zone we saw earlier in the season. However, once they settled down and got the possession flowing in the zone, they really crunched the Stars’ penalty kill close to goal. They then pushed it back out to Kevin Shattenkirk who blasted it in for the winner.

That shot surely had blues fans celebrating like this:

.

Not only did the Blues knock off the top team in the Western Conference, but they kept pace with both the Stars and the Chicago Blackhawks. It’s probably too early to truly call this a statement game, but this was the style of play the Blues have to show every game come playoff time.

Next: Winning Cures What Ails Blues

It’s a great momentum keeper/builder with the Kings coming to town as well. If St. Louis can keep that style of play rolling, then perhaps they can get that L.A. monkey off their back as well.

How do you all feel after the game?  Were the Blues just lucky or was this more of what we’ve all been wanting to see?  Let us know in the comments.