The St. Louis Blues and the Chicago Blackhawks played a highly-charged game Thursday night in St. Louis. After their last meeting in Chicago on Sunday when the Blues walked away with a 2-1 win, Chicago had something to prove coming in to the Scottrade Center.
And the Blues walked away minus a tooth or two and having been physically run over by the Chicago Blackhawks.
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St. Louis was not planning on taking that lying down.
The Play-By-Play
The first period was full of energy and strong forechecking by both teams, and some excellent defense on either end. It was an unusually slow period for those looking to get shots off, and that can all be laid at the feet of the defensemen on both teams. By the end of the first the Blackhawks had outshot the St. Louis Blues by one at 8-7 SOGs (which specifically counts shots that go in or are blocked by the goaltender), and were slightly outperforming them in terms of Corsi, possessing the puck in the offensive zone and getting off more missed and blocked shots.
Corsi in 5v5 situations, 1st period.
The most remarkable player all throughout the first was starting goaltender Jake Allen. Although Allen is considered second-string on the St. Louis Blues, he’s been on a hot streak lately. Head coach Ken Hitchcock said, “When you’re in points mode, you ride whatever is hot.”
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And in points mode they are indeed: tonight’s game determined whether or not the Blues would start their first playoff series on home ice. Hitch finished with “[when] we see a guy that’s hot, that’s feeling it, so you ride it out and whenever that runs out then you go a different direction.”
Allen played it more conservative than he does usually, as the 24-year-old goaltender likes to play the puck a bit and come out of his net for a save or to cut down on the angles.
As he’s quick on his skates, he can often get away with it, or play it to his advantage. Whether this more net-centric play was his choice Thursday or not remains to be seen, but it was highly effective for Allen, maintaining a shut-out through the first, second, and most of the third.
Shattenkirk and Versteeg each picked up a penalty, the former for slashing and the latter for an illegal check to the head of Alexander Steen. Neither resulted in a conversion on the power play, which wasn’t terribly surprising for the Blackhawks, who sit at 20th in the league on the PP with a 17.8% conversion rate, but was for the Blues who are fourth in the league (22%) in the same category.
The Blues were simply biding their time.
The second period was nothing like the first for either team. Most of the period was spent in confusing blundered plays for both sides, with the Blues and the Blackhawks spending a lot of time simply circling the neutral zone. It wasn’t until 17:10 had gone by in the second that the Blues were able to put one past Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford while on the power play.
They finished that period with an aggressive press up the ice, pulling ahead in shots on goal and upping the noise from the home crowd.
The majority of the third saw a one-goal game, with the Blackhawks unable to turn the tide despite several odd-man rushes up the ice when a Blues defenseman got caught pinching.
Apparently the Blues collectively decided to wait for the end of the period to really clinch their victory.
At 14:05 Paul Stastny took a snap shot off a Pietrangelo-Stastny play, sending it right behind Crawford once again.
The Blackhawks pushed back to make it 2-1 after a Shaw slap-in off a rebound that Allen couldn’t quite get a handle on. They pulled their goalie in the last minute and a half of the period but to no avail; St. Louis clinched the division title, home ice and Jake Allen let in only one shot out of 22, giving him a .955% save percentage for the night.
Apr 9, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen (34) makes a save behind Chicago Blackhawks center Andrew Shaw (65) during the first period at Scottrade Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
How They Played
This wasn’t their best game, but it was far from their worst. I was tremendously impressed with their pressure in the first and the third, even if the second was a surprising snooze-fest (ignoring the last three minutes, of course).
And clinching the first spot in the central division is no mean feat.
Ty Rattie and Steve Ott both had unusually good games for what we’ve seen out of them over this season; perhaps they’re finally finding their game with the Blues. Ott took a place on a line with Lehtera and Rattie, and both played fast games with good puck movement. Rattie had a number of strong plays that ended with a shot on goal or the puck in the offensive zone and I felt practically cheated that we didn’t see a goal out of him.
And Jake Allen, of course, played his pads off.
Stastny took home first star of the night for his excellent two-way play over the course of the evening, not to mention his game-winning goal in the second.
The Blues might have home ice and solved that problem, but now minds turn to the goalie question. Who will start during the playoffs: hot-handed Jake Allen or first-stringer Brian Elliott?
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