Blues @ Montreal Canadiens 4-2 - Saturday, February 11, 2017
Patrik Berglund scored his first NHL hat trick and the Blues extended their winning streak to four games with a 4-2 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre. Berglund's first two goals gave St. Louis two of its three one-goal leads. He completed his hat trick with his 17th goal into an empty net with 1:01 remaining. David Perron scored a goal and an assist and Jake Allen made 28 saves for St. Louis (29-22-5), which is 5-1-0 since coach Mike Yeo replaced Ken Hitchcock on Feb. 1. The Blues' winning streak spans four road games in six days. Max Pacioretty scored a goal and an assist, and Shea Weber scored for Montreal (31-18-8), which is 1-4-1 in its past six games. Al Montoya made 18 saves. Berglund's second goal of the game at 19:35 of the second period gave the Blues their third one-goal lead at 3-2. Berglund's first of the game put St. Louis up 1-0 at 3:49 of the first period. He scored his 15th goal on a deflection past Montoya, who fell down when he moved to his left to face a shot by Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo. It was the first goal Montoya allowed in four home games, ending his shutout streak of 159:10 at Bell Centre. Weber made it 1-1 on Montreal's third shot at 16:39 of the first, a slap shot from the right point for his 13th goal.Perron made it 2-1 with his 12th goal at 7:20 of the second. Pacioretty, who was sent home before the Canadiens' morning skate because of the flu, scored his 28th goal at 12:55 to make it 2-2.
* Perron tapped the puck back to leave it for Berglund to complete his hat trick instead of putting it into the empty net himself. "We were really close to the net and it almost looks like he kind of loses it or gives it to me," Perron said. "I'm not sure if he was trying to give me a point there. I was like, 'No, you're taking it, buddy.' But I'll take the point too."
* Allen used his stick to deflect the puck on Alexander Radulov's wraparound attempt and made a point-blank save on Pacioretty's shot from the goalmouth at 5:00 of the third period to protect the Blues' 3-2 lead.
* Perron used his left skate to kick the puck to his forehand before shooting past Montoya for his first goal in 13 games (Jan. 14).
* Though he didn't get an assist, Radulov did strong work to keep the puck in the offensive zone on the play that led to Pacioretty's goal. "He's always strong on the puck, and I think that creates offense both for our line but also wears down the (defense) and wears down the opposition for all the other lines," Pacioretty said. "So you know he played a strong game and it would have been nice to see him get rewarded."
* The Blues have not allowed a power-play goal under Yeo. Montreal went 0-for-1 and St. Louis has successfully killed 16 straight opportunities. ... Montreal center Tomas Plekanec played his 900th NHL career game.
"They didn't turn pucks over, they made it real hard on us, and this was a game where we basically scratched and clawed a win out of it." Mike Yeo
"It feels really good. I've been waiting a long time for it, but going back home to St. Louis with four really tough road wins is even a better feeling."
"I just went to the net and [Pietrangelo] had a great shot-pass to me so it was an open net." Berglund said.
"Obviously, I think we were running low on juice there in the third and it's been a long trip. It feels like it's been a long trip and we found a way to win the game. And I thought we had a great trip, a huge momentum builder for us."
"It was a terrible goal, it shouldn't have gone in. A pee-wee goalie could have stopped it." Allen said.
Carter Hutton made 25 saves for his second straight shutout, and the Blues extended their winning streak to five games with a 2-0 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena. Hutton has four shutouts in his past six road starts, dating to a 4-0 win against the San Jose Sharks on Jan. 14. Before this streak, Hutton had four NHL shutouts in 76 starts. St. Louis (30-22-5) is 6-1-0 since Yeo replaced Ken Hitchcock as coach. This win finished the first five-game sweep of a road trip in Blues history; it included three shutouts. Detroit (22-25-10) lost its fourth straight and is in last place in the Eastern Conference. Petr Mrazek made 27 saves for Detroit. Ivan Barbashev gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 2:06 of the first period, beating Mrazek with a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot. Barbashev played on the third line with Kenny Agostino and Magnus Paajarvi, each called up from Chicago of the American Hockey League to replaced injured players. The Blues outshot the Red Wings 16-4 in the second period. Hutton made four saves on a third-period power play, and Jaden Schwartz made it 2-0 with an empty-net goal with 11 seconds left.
* On the third line's first shift, Barbashev took a pass from Agostino in the corner, circled into the faceoff circle and put a wrist shot under Mrazek's blocker.
"I was looking for a pass before they came after me, but when they left me alone, I took the shot," said Barbashev, who played his ninth NHL game.
* The Blues nearly took a 2-0 lead late in the second period when Paajarvi broke through the Red Wings defense, but Mrazek jammed his pads together to keep the puck out of the five-hole.
* With the Red Wings trying to tie the game late in the first period, Hutton made a pad save on Thomas Vanek's slap shot, then slid across the crease to get in front of Niklas Kronwall's one-timer off the rebound.
* After pulling Mrazek for an extra attacker, the Red Wings kept the Blues under pressure for the final 90 seconds, but Hutton made three saves and his teammates blocked three shots before Schwartz's goal.
* Hutton, who has started 16 games this season, is tied for sixth in the NHL with four shutouts. … The Red Wings honored owner Mike Ilitch before and during the game. Ilitch, who bought the team in 1982, died Friday at the age of 87. The players wore a "Mr. I" patch on their left sleeve and the logo was painted in front of their bench. … The Blues played in the first NHL game at Joe Louis Arena, defeating the Red Wings 3-2 on Dec. 27, 1979.
"I saw before the game that he had three in his last five, so I told him that four in six would be much more impressive. Now I'm going to tell him how great five in seven would look." Mike Yeo said.
"I might have had a run like this in college; I know I got really hot as a junior. But nothing like this at this level. I think Jake [Allen, the Blues' No. 1 goalie] and I are answering a lot of critics." Hutton said.
"Our goalies are winning games for us, but we've also really focused on defense since Mike took over. I think we're letting Jake and Carter see more pucks, and that's helped them.""It felt like there were 12 guys in the crease for most of the last 90 seconds, but we kept digging." Edmundson said.
"It is awesome that we're in a situation where the coach is giving us ice time with five minutes left in a 1-0 game. That shows trust in us and is going to make us better players." Barbashev said.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Alexander Steen scored power-play goals in the third period to help the Blues get their sixth straight win, 4-3 against the Vancouver Canucks at Scottrade Center. Magnus Paajarvi and Jori Lehtera also scored for the Blues (31-22-5). Jake Allen made 18 saves and St. Louis improved to 7-1-0 since coach Mike Yeo took over for Ken Hitchcock on Feb. 1. The Blues moved five points ahead of the Nashville Predators for third place in the Central Division. Bo Horvat, Henrik Sedin and Brandon Sutter scored for the Canucks (25-27-6), who ended a six-game road trip 2-4-0. Jacob Markstrom made 17 saves. Tarasenko's 27th of the season 58 seconds into the third period made it 3-2, and Steen scored at 5:00 to give the Blues a 4-2 lead. Sutter got the Canucks within one when he redirected Alexander Edler's point shot from the slot at 6:49 to make it 4-3. The Blues scored the first goal of the game for the sixth straight time when Paajarvi got his third in the past eight games at 4:30 of the first period. Horvat tied it after intercepting a pass by Jay Bouwmeester at 10:15, but the Blues went ahead 2-1 at 17:17 on Lehtera's sixth goal. The Canucks challenged for offside but the goal was upheld after video review. Henrik Sedin scored at 8:27 of the second period off a feed from Daniel Sedin in the slot to tie it 2-2.
* Markstrom made a glove save on Blues left wing Jaden Schwartz at 12:04 of the first period.
* Tarasenko's goal came after he and Lehtera played one-touch passes along the right side, then Lehtera set the perfect screen in front of Markstrom so Tarasenko could take a wrist shot from the right circle with an open side.
* One night after Lehtera lost 11 of 12 faceoffs against the Detroit Red Wings, he won 15 of 20 draws against the Canucks.
* Nail Yakupov replaced Scottie Upshall and Robert Bortuzzo replaced Carl Gunnarsson for the Blues. ... Both Horvat (knee) and Sutter (wrist) returned after missing one game.
"We came out in the game and we were a little sloppy, to be honest, in the first and second. Once we got back in between the second and third, we really just told ourselves we needed to create momentum more than anything. That's important when you're starting a period on the power play." Kevin Shattenkirk
"I think, as coaches, we were a little bit nervous about this game coming back off a five-game road trip. It's always a challenge in itself, but then you're faced with the fact that you played the night before, with travel, and you're playing against a team that's sitting here waiting for you.
"We were expecting a playoff game from them, a playoff mentality. They're fighting for their lives right now. We knew it was going to be a challenge with that. ... What really impressed me was our response in the third period." Yeo said.
"We were tired. There's no question. A long road trip. We've been battling hard, we've been finding ways to win games." Jake Allen
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