NHL - Pittsburgh Penguins @ St Louis Blues 2-5 - Monday, January 18, 2016

Blues center Paul Stastny had trouble with his head gear the past two games after sustaining a facial cut Jan. 8. Stastny wore a full face cage that he felt gave him issues with his vision and decided to wear a full clear visor against the Penguins. The change paid dividends after Stastny had a goal and three assists and Brian Elliott made 36 saves to help the Blues to a 5-2 win at Scottrade Center. Stastny had his first four-point game since Dec. 2, 2009 with the Colorado Avalanche.
Troy Brouwer had a goal and an assist, including the go-ahead goal early in the third period; Alexander Steen had a goal and an assist to give the Stastny-Brouwer-Steen line eight points in the game, and Vladimir Tarasenko and Kevin Shattenkirk scored for St. Louis. The Blues are 4-1-0 in their past five games after a five-game losing streak. They have points in 22 of 24 games (18-2-4) when scoring three or more goals.
Chris Kunitz and Evgeni Malkin scored and Kris Letang had two assists for Pittsburgh, which is 2-7-1 in the second of back-to-back games. Jeff Zatkoff made 20 saves. The Penguins liked the position they were in after two periods tied 2-2, but were outscored 3-0 in the third playing their second game in two days.
Steen opened the scoring 12 minutes into the first period, his first in 10 games, after Brouwer skated past Ian Cole, beat Zatkoff to a puck and kept it alive for Stastny, who fed Steen for the easy goal with Zatkoff out of his net. The Penguins tied it on a Kunitz breakaway, his third goal in four games, with 1:57 left in the second after getting a stretch pass from Letang following a blocked shot in the Penguins zone. Kunitz beat Elliott five-hole to make it 1-1. Crosby's assist on the Kunitz goal gave him 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists) in the past 14 games.
Malkin's team-leading 20th of the season came after the Blues lost control of the puck in the neutral zone, Carl Hagelin fed Malkin, who skated around Jay Bouwmeester and beat Elliott stick side at 15:16 of the second to make it 2-1. It was Hagelin's first point with the Penguins in his second game after being acquired from the Anaheim Ducks.
Tarasenko answered 1:18 later, getting a pass from Joel Edmundson at the blue line and in similar fashion to Malkin, Tarasenko moved around Ben Lovejoy and beat Zatkoff high stick side to tie the game 2-2. Colton Parayko kept a puck alive at the blue line, Stastny deflected the puck into the air and after it bounced in the slot, Brouwer's slap shot beat Zatkoff five-hole 2:10 into the third period put the Blues ahead for good.
Stastny tried to split the Penguins defense sending Brouwer to the goal, but the puck got tangled up and Stastny collected it, took a stride into the slot and beat Zatkoff with a wrist shot 11:38 into the third to give St. Louis a 4-2 lead.
Elliott has made 82 saves on 87 shots the past two games in the absence of Jake Allen (upper-body injury).

Pens Quotes

Sidney Crosby: "We've got to find ways to win those games and were going to see more and more as the season goes along here and everybody's in that position. We've just got to find ways to win. We're not any different and if we want to push into the playoffs here, we've got to find ways to do that."
Mike Sullivan: "I don't think it had anything to do with running out of gas. We knew St. Louis was going to push back in the third period. We dominated the second period, and they're a proud team, they're a good team. We knew they were going to push back. We've just got to find a way to match the urgency through that stretch and control that momentum."

Blues Quotes

Paul Stastny: "It's like a new lease on life; (the visor) felt like I could see so much more and not playing so hesitant. I had to switch right away. It's a little different, but it's so much more clear. You can see."
Ken Hitchcock: "I think typical of what's going on in the games; we responded the right way in the third period where we just played heavier. We got on the puck, we competed for the puck, we played through the checking and we won the period because of it. ... They outplayed us significantly in the second period and we had to have some type of response in the third and we did. We started to check better, we started to compete at a higher level and had success because of it. Tarasenko's goal was, again, as timely as it could be, because we were being outplayed, our goalie was standing on his head and to score that goal, that's a great sign for us."
Troy Brouwer: "It came surprisingly flat to be honest with you when it bounced. I just put a good swing on it, hopefully I get a bunch of it and I did. It was a good job by [Parayko] keeping the puck in at the point. [Hitchcock] doesn't like it when we hang below the puck very often, but it kind of worked out."