In a showdown between two teams battling themselves as much as the other team, the Blues were the ones who found a way to let the good times roll. After scoring just three goals in the previous four games, the Blues went wild, at least by their standards, on Saturday night at Scottrade Center, scoring three goals in one period while getting another stellar effort from goalie Brian Elliott in a 4-1 win. It was just the second win in the past five games for the Blues, but it allowed them to move back within three points of second-place Dallas in the Central Division.
Jori Lehtera and Paul Stastny both had a goal and an assist and Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and deserved an assist. It was the Blues' biggest offensive output since a 5-2 win over Pittsburgh on Jan. 18 and they scored three power-play goals, matching the number they had in the previous 12 games.
Alex Pietrangelo left the ice with 7:20 to go in the third after being hit hard into the boards by Charlie Coyle and appearing to hurt his right knee. He was down on the ice for a while before leaving the ice and limping down the hallway to the dressing room.
The Blues seized control in a second period that really made no sense, other than to highlight just how hapless the Wild are right now. The Blues were outshot 24-8 in the period and the Wild were on the power play for almost six of the 20 minutes, but the Blues managed to take a 3-1 lead.
One of the refrains for the team as they struggled through a pronounced goal drought was that it would be a greasy goal that got them out of it. Actually, the goal that started it all was a very nice one. On a power play, which has usually meant a two-minute hiatus for the Blues' offense, Stastny got the puck behind the goal line, threaded a puck between goalie Devan Dubnyk and defenseman Marco Scandella to Tarasenko, who hesitated just an instant before wristing a shot to the top left corner.
The goal snapped a run of 24 power plays without a goal, a streak that went back eight games-plus to Jan. 12 and a game against New Jersey. Tarasenko had gone five games without a goal and had just one in the previous 11 games.
The second goal met the definition of greasy. On another power play, Robby Fabbri took a shot that Dubnyk stopped. The puck bounced in front of the goal, where it hit the top of the skate of Jori Lehtera and caromed into the net. It was Lehtera's first goal in seven games.
One thing the two goals had in common was that the power plays were set up by Minnesota penalties committed against Scottie Upshall. On the first, Mikko Koivu caught him with an elbow and on the second, he aggravated Nate Prosser up that the Wild defenseman took a pop at him. Earlier in the game, Upshall had picked up his 500th career penalty minute when he was called for high sticking, even though the penalty was clearly on David Backes. But to set things right, he got called for a slashing penalty later in the period.
For the fourth consecutive game, the Blues didn't score in the first period, though they had the better of possession in the period and a couple good scoring chances. It looked like they had scored a goal on a shot by Alexander Steen from the slot that found the top left corner, but the play had just been whistled dead for the Wild having six men on the ice. Of course, a power play isn't a good situation for the Blues now, and they failed to score for the 24th straight time. Later in the period, Tarasenko tipped a Joel Edmundson shot into Dubnyk's chest but then couldn't slip the rebound past him.
Notes
Wild View
It didn’t play out like the previous two, but the second period was again a difference-maker for Minnesota on Saturday, and not in a good way. On the Wild's three-game, winless road trip, the Minnesota conceded eight goals in three second-periods, a minus-six combined in the middle frames. Minnesota deserved better in the second period on Saturday, taking a franchise-record 24 shots on goal for a road game, outshooting the Blues 24-8. Yet St. Louis scored three times in the second period, and the Wild scored once, putting Minnesota in a two-goal hole with 20 minutes remaining in a road game.In Brooklyn, a 1-0 Wild lead became a 3-2 Islanders advantage in the second period. Two days later in Manhattan, the Wild lost its grip of a 2-0 lead at Madison Square Garden, entering the third period tied 2-2. Again, the second period on Saturday was dramatically different in how it played out, with the Wild dominating in every facet except the scoreboard, but that won't be much of a consolation.
Saturday morning, General Manager Chuck Fletcher said the Wild needed to get back to playing the right way, and paying attention to the process. It's a results-oriented business, and when the results aren’t going your way (as they haven't been for Minnesota the past month) that will be the loudest voice. But the Wild won't go too many games like it did on Saturday and not walk away with two points.
The Wild outplayed the Blues. They outshot St. Louis, out-possessed St. Louis, and did many things that portend earning two points. The statistics and the eye-test both favored the Wild: Shots on goal were 39-24, shot-attempts were 32-20 (63-37 at all strengths), and scoring chances were 36-24 The only way you lose in a game like that is a big night for the other team's power play, and a big night from its goalie. Brian Elliott was very good for the Blues. The Wild wasn’t without its chances, quality chances, but over the first 40 minutes, Elliott turned aside 30 Wild shots, 23 of which in a lopsided second period when he stood on his head.
That's a game the Wild dominated at five-on-five, but the difference on the scoreboard and transitively, now in the standings, was special teams. Minnesota had seven power plays and produced one goal (which we'll expound on later), and St. Louis had six, and scored on three of them, its margin of victory.
Entering Saturday, the Blues were in a definitive offensive slide, with three goals combined in their past four games. Then they equaled that total on their power play against the Wild. Despite going 2-2-1 over that stretch, St. Louis wasn't lighting the world on fire offensively, and none of those goals came on the power play as the Blues searched for ways to score.
A pretty solid return to the lineup for forward Tyler Graovac. After not playing in the NHL since the Wild's season opener, Graovac looked very comfortable with the pace of play and physicality. He's not an overly physical player, but at 6-foot-5, 212 pounds, Graovac has the frame to play that kind of game. His decision-making was decisive and crisp throughout the game, and he was strong in the neutral zone either facilitating breakouts, or winning pucks back.
Graovac didn't miss a beat, and fit in well on the Wild's third line.
With Thomas Vanek a healthy scratch, the Wild had to tweak its power play units at Scottrade Center in the midst of a stretch of having scored a power-play goal in four straight road games. The new units consisted of Nino Niederreiter, Mikko Koivu, Charlie Coyle, Ryan Suter, and Marco Scandella, and Zach Parise, Mikael Granlund, Jason Pominville, Matt Dumba, and Jared Spurgeon. When Spurgeon left the game in the second period due to an injury, Justin Fontaine was used in his place. So in the early stages of the game, the Wild's new units looked to establish chemistry and fluidity. It came gradually, and by its fourth power play, Minnesota connected when Dumba crashed the crease and scored on a rebound. The Wild's power play continues to score in visiting buildings (now on a five-game streak), which can provide a major boost. With the number of opportunities it had though, that boost could have been bigger.
Blues Quotes
Brian Elliott: “It’s awesome when guys are putting it in. You just get uplifted. The whole bench feels it. You just keep going on that good-feeling train.”
“That’s the one that kind of makes you happy. Guys take that kind of momentum and go down there and put it in the back of the net. It was good. We’ve been struggling scoring and tonight, we kind of clicked on the power play a little bit and really made some nice plays.”
Jori Lehtera: “Good puck movement, good shots and guys hit the net [power-play revival]. Simple stuff. Our team got way better after that goal. It was an important goal for us.”
Brad Shaw: “You have to stay out of the box. You can’t take that volume of penalty kills against anybody. I thought the game was the type of game that had a chance to get out of hand; it almost got there, but we have to keep our heads about us a little bit better than that. You could almost hear the collective sigh of relief on the bench.”
Paul Stastny: “It either goes 2-1 or 3-0 and that was kind of the turning point. A lot of momentum kind of swung on that play.”
Wild Quotes
Jarret Stoll: "We had a pretty good first, a great second, and anytime you get 24 shots in a period, it should be a good period for you. The penalty kill let us down tonight. It's been pretty good for the last while but it let us down tonight for sure. We all take a lot of pride in that, and there was one bad bounce, but you work for your bounces, and they worked hard for their bounces."Mike Yeo: "I don't think the score was indicative of the play tonight. If we recognize that and we see what we put into the game tonight, and bring that back home with us, then we'll have a chance to get this turned around."
"I don't have an update yet, but one thing I know about [Spurgeon] is when he leaves a game, it's not something small. Again, I'm not going to sit here and say that he's going to be out long term, but I will say that I know he was in pain.) We obviously would have liked to get one or two more there tonight."
Jason Pominville: "You probably are. You'll probably end up getting more than one goal on most nights. Their goalie made some good saves, we made some good plays, and we just couldn't find a way to score."
Mikael Granlund: "It's frustrating, obviously the outcome of it, but on our side right now we have to look at the positives. We showed a lot of fight. It's been a little while since we showed that much fight, and pushback, and had that many opportunities. Tonight I think we actually played a good game. We had our chances, we played hard, but then they score suddenly on the [power play], and we're down 3-0."
Devan Dubnyk: "As a group, as a penalty kill, probably three is not going to get it done."
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