Going to St Louis was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most. It meant a road trip with my friend Dan, climbing the Gateway Arch and finally getting to see Vladimir Tarasenko. Well two out three isn't bad eh?
Dan although living in Columbus grew up in St Louis and we set off from Ohio the day before the game. It got a tour of everything that is cool in the Mid-West. I thought I had tried every type of fast food there was to try in 'Merica but Dan introduced me to Steak n Shake and Lion's Choice (Like Arbys but only better). We headed up to visit his Pop, who is a great character and full of jokes and shared a few beers in Debz Corner (a bar I compared to Moe's Tavern from the Simpsons, and Dan found hilarious).
St Louis is full of little surprises and cool places to check out. McGurk's Irish bar was one of those places and has to go down as being the largest Pub I have ever been too. With far too much alcohol consumed it was time to head back to the hotel, but not before Dan gave us his best rendition of a song that involved going swimming with broad-legged women. I couldn't sleep for laughing!
The next morning's newspapers confirmed my worst fears. Vladimir Tarasenko was out. He took a bad hit against Vancouver and Hitchcock was taking no chances before the playoffs. Alexander Steen would also be out. With that really killing my mood it was time to go up the Gateway Arch and look at Busch Stadium before the game started.
As long as Tarasenko and Steen are out of the lineup, no one will think things are back to normal for the Blues. St Louis snapped a two-game losing streak, reached 100 points for the seventh time in franchise history and clinched a spot in the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. While clinching a playoff spot has been inevitable for some time, coach Ken Hitchcock said the team could now redirect their gaze. With five games to play, starting in Dallas the following night, the Blues are two points behind Central Division-leading Nashville, with a game in hand. They needed the win to stay one point ahead of Chicago, who the Blues play on Sunday.
The Blues scored a rare first period goal, snapping a 10-game drought. Jaden Schwartz scored that one, just 1:16 into the game, and he had an assist as well. Jake Allen got the win, making the Blues just the second team in the league to have two goalies with 20 wins this season. he had a quiet first two periods, facing just 10 shots, then had to make eight saves in the third, including a few acrobatic ones. Jori Lehtera and Patrik Berglund each had a goal and an assist in the final four minutes as the Blues used a late spurt to make the game safe.
The Blues brought more energy to the game right from the start, dominating the first two periods though the lead was just one goal until late in the third. In a run where they went 1-3-2 in six games, and had dropped the first two games of a three-game homestand, this was their best game in a while.
The Blues had to work for it, killing four minutes of Calgary power play in the middle of the third period before finally giving themselves some badly needed breathing room when Lehtera put in a pass from Berglund with 3:15 to go in the third. After going 10 games without scoring in the first period, the Blues finally found a way to break through. Schwartz dug out the puck behind the goal line, skated to the corner of the crease, and on the backhand flipped the puck up and across the face of the goal and past goalie Jonas Hiller.
It was the first time the Blues had scored in the first period since March 10 (when, coincidentally, it was Schwartz who scored), and they held that lead at the break thanks to some nice saves by Allen, including a shot from Dennis Wideman that he blocked with his mask. The blues got a scare when Dirty Dog Brandon Bollig slammed Barret Jackman into the boards late in the period. Jackman was down for a while, and when he got up, he left a mosaic of blood on the ice and a river running down his face and onto his jersey. Defensive partner Robert Bortuzzo jumped in and started pummeling Bollig. The Flames goon got a five-minute boarding penalty and a game misconduct for drawing blood on the hit. The Blues ended up with a three-minute power play at the start of the second period, and used it to take a 2-0 lead when David Backes passed to an open Paul Stastny in front of the net for the goal.
The Blues still had more than two minutes of power play to go on the major penalty, but couldn't take advantage and less than a minute after Calgary killed the penalty, the Flames scored, with Sean Monahan beautifully redirecting a shot from Jiri Hudler into the goal as he skated through the slot. After two periods, the Blues had a whopping 32-10 edge in shots on goal. They almost had a goal early in the third when Dmitrij Jaskin took a shot that beat Hiller but caught the far post and caromed away. The third period then got a lot scarier. Kevin Shattenkirk was called for tripping, and 21 seconds after killing off that penalty, Berglund was called for high sticking, The Blues killed that one too, and actually had the best goal-scoring chance when a turnover at mid-ice sprung Backes on a breakaway, but his shot was into Hiller's pads. Lehtera got the Blues some breathing space when he put in a pass from Berglund from behind the net with 3:15 to play and Berglund clinched it with an empty-net goal. In the absence of Tarasenko and Steen, the Blues were forced to find a few new line combinations. Hitchcock used a line of Paul Stastny, Jaden Schwartz and T.J. Oshie, a trio that had seen only one period together this season. It took them only one 76 seconds to get on board, with Schwartz scoring his 25th goal f the season and Oshie picking up an assist. Stastny has spent much of the season on what would be considered the Blues' third line, playing with Dmitrij Jaskin and Patrik Berglund. But for the foreseeable future, he'll be playing with Schwartz, who's now tied for second on the team in goals, and Oshie, who's third in assists.
I was going to the game to watch Tarasenko and Steen not Ty Rattie, but the Alberta native was recalled from the AHL's Chicago Wolves and placed on a line with Lehtera and Olli Jokinen.
Game in a Nutshell
The St. Louis Blues knew they eventually would clinch a berth into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But the way they did it, with a 4-1 win against the Calgary Flames at Scottrade Center, had them feeling good. Tarasenko and Steen are first and second in points for St. Louis. Each is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Playing without their top scorers, the Blues' new top line of Jaden Schwartz, Paul Stastny and T.J. Oshie combined for five points. Schwartz, Stastny, Patrik Berglund and Jori Lehtera each had a goal and an assist; Oshie had an assist.
Allen preserved the 2-1 lead with two saves with St. Louis shorthanded in the third period. He stopped Dennis Wideman from the slot at 8:12, then denied Hudler from the side of the goal on the rebound. The Blues had some key penalty kills in the third period, continued to press with a one-goal lead, and were rewarded in the end.
Jake Allen: "That was impressive to watch from my end. It could have been a lot higher score, but their goaltender (Jonas Hiller) played great. What an effort from the guys. Coming down to the wire, clinching a playoff spot, a couple of our key players (Alexander Steen and Vladimir Tarasenko) out, guys stepped up tonight. It was impressive."
Paul Stastny: "It's nice [clinching] on home ice. Now the next step for us is get better until April 15, or whenever the playoffs start, but our focus is trying to get home ice. We worked hard at both ends. I know it's cliche-ish, but we held on to the puck a little more. We tried making some plays throughout all four lines, and I think as a team we played pretty sound hockey, and then even when it was a one-goal game, just kept going. [The new line] had one period in Buffalo and it was fun. Two guys that play that give-and-go game, smart guys that you can read off each other and always support each other."
Ken Hitchcock: "We were the much better team in the first two periods; their goalie kept them in it, and then we needed our goalie in the third. Calgary just hangs around and Calgary had some great chances in the third, and our goalie held us in that first 10-12 minutes. We stop looking at standings below us. Until the x is beside your name, you're always counting below you. Now we're looking above. So it's an important game tomorrow for us because before Nashville plays, we can tie them. We can really put pressure on them, and we're getting the heat from behind. It sets up the two games with the Hawks as unbelievable competition. If we can get those two points [against Dallas], we'll keep the pressure on Nashville. That's going to be good. This is an awesome opportunity for [Stastny] and that line to show us what we think they're capable of. If I was him, I would look at this, 'man what an opportunity' and I think he'll take advantage of it. We've lean on [Stastny] more defensively because him doing what he's done has allowed Lehtera's line to terrorize teams. So now he gets the chance to have the matchup and we'll use the other two lines to hunker it down. Stas' gets the prime-time now and we'll use another line to get them the space that they need."
Jaden Schwartz: "It was nice breaking that streak. It's not always fun chasing games all the time. It got the crowd into it early."
Flames Quotes
Sean Monahan: "Obviously, it doesn't mean much right now after a game like that, but I guess putting the puck in the net in this League is tough, so it's pretty cool to get 30. But it doesn't mean much after a game like that."
Stars of the Game
1 Paul Stastny
2 Alex Pietrangelo
3 Jaden Schwartz
Goals
1-0 - 01:16 - EHG Jaden Schwartz Asst: T.J. Oshie - Schwartz came out of the corner with the puck after Oshie won a board battle with TJ Brodie and flipped a backhand past Hiller 1:16 into the game.
2-0 - 20:23 - PPG Paul Stastny Asst: David Backes, Jaden Schwartz - St. Louis began the second period with 2:48 of power-play time after Brandon Bollig's major for boarding Barret Jackman late in the first period, and they went ahead 2-0 on Stastny's 15th goal. David Backes patiently waited out a sliding Mikael Backlund before sending a pass to Stastny in front. Stastny redirected the puck through Hiller from in tight 24 seconds into the period.
2-1 - 23:35 - EHG Sean Monahan Asst: Jiri Hudler, Johnny Gaudreau - Monahan's 30th of the season made it 2-1. He redirected Jiri Hudler's centering feed into the high slot, beating Allen high over his left shoulder 3:35 into the second.
3-1 - 56:45 - EHG Jori Lehtera Asst: Patrik Berglund - Lehtera gave the Blues a 3-1 lead after taking a wraparound pass from Berglund and beating Hiller with a backhand with 3:15 remaining.
4-1 - 57:55 - EN Patrik Berglund Asst: Jori Lehtera, Paul Stastny - Berglund scored an empty-net goal with 2:05 left.
Stats
- Paul Stastny has 51 points in 43 games against the Flames.
- St. Louis (47-23-7) is one of four Western Conference teams to clinch a playoff berth; the Nashville Predators, Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks are the others. The Blues trail the Predators by two points for first place in the Central Division and are one point ahead of the Blackhawks, who are third. St. Louis and Chicago each has a game in hand on Nashville.
- Allen made 17 saves for his 20th win. He and Brian Elliott (24) joined the New York Rangers' Cam Talbot (20) and Henrik Lundqvist (27) as the only NHL tandems with each goalie having 20 victories.
- The Flames (42-29-7), who got a goal from Sean Monahan and 39 saves from Hiller, are in third place in the Pacific Division. They lead the Los Angeles Kings, who defeated the Edmonton Oilers 8-2, by one point.
- It was Calgary's sixth straight loss in St. Louis, dating to April 1, 2011. The Blues are 9-1-1 against the Flames in the past 11, and they've outscored Calgary 17-2 in the past four. St. Louis swept the three-game season series for its first sweep of Calgary since 2002-03, when it went 4-0-0.
- When Schwartz beat Hiller for his 25th goal, it ended the Blues' first-period goal drought at 10 games and 206:56. St. Louis had not scored in the first period since Schwartz did against the Winnipeg Jets on March 10.
- Monahan, in his second season, is the first Calgary player to score 30 goals since Jarome Iginla in 2011-12.
- The Blues outshot the Flames 43-18 and won for the second time in their past seven games (2-3-2).
Penalties
| 1st Period | ||
|---|---|---|
| 08:31 CGY | Joe Colborne Tripping against Patrik Berglund | |
| 17:48 CGY | Brandon Bollig Fighting (maj) against Robert Bortuzzo | |
| 17:48 STL | Robert Bortuzzo Misconduct (10 min) against Brandon Bollig | |
| 17:48 STL | Robert Bortuzzo Fighting (maj) against Brandon Bollig | |
| 17:48 STL | Robert Bortuzzo Instigator against Brandon Bollig | |
| 17:48 CGY | Brandon Bollig Game misconduct against Barret Jackman | |
| 17:48 CGY | Brandon Bollig Boarding (maj) against Barret Jackman | |
| 2nd Period | ||
| 09:03 STL | David Backes Slashing against Matt Stajan | |
| 3rd Period | ||
| 06:58 STL | Kevin Shattenkirk Tripping against Mason Raymond | |
| 09:19 STL | Patrik Berglund Hi-sticking against Johnny Gaudreau | |
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