NHL - Blues - Round Up November 03-06, 2016

Blues @ Stars 2-6 - Thursday, November 3, 2016


Tyler Seguin had four assists and the Dallas Stars ended a three-game losing streak with a 6-2 victory against the St. Louis Blues at American Airlines Center.
It tied a career high for Seguin, who last had four assists on Oct. 18, 2014, against the Philadelphia Flyers. John Klingberg had two goals and Jamie Benn had three assists for the Stars, who won the first game between the teams since Game 7 of the 2016 Western Conference Second Round. It was a disappointing loss for the Blues, who were defeated by the New York Rangers 5-0 on Tuesday.
Dallas (4-4-2) took a 1-0 lead when Patrick Eaves deflected Seguin's wrist shot past Jake Allen at 6:35 of the second period. Eaves was going to the net and screened the Blues goalie when the shot hit his jersey and skipped over Allen's shoulder. Paul Stastny tied the game at 11:26 of the second period with the teams skating 4-on-4. On the ensuing shift after the goal, Benn had a breakaway turned away by Allen's right pad before he tracked down the rebound and sent a pass to Klingberg, who scored his first goal of the season on a wrist shot at 11:57 to make it 2-1.

Stephen Johns gave Dallas a 3-1 lead at 3:40 of the third period on a delayed penalty. Seguin made a cross-ice pass to Johns, who one-timed a shot past Allen. Seguin had his fourth assist when Jason Spezza scored a power-play goal at 5:36. St. Louis (5-4-2) appeared to score at 8:22 of the third period, but Alexander Steen's goal was overturned after a challenge by Dallas. Alex Pietrangelo scored at 10:27 to make it 4-2. Klingberg scored into at 16:30 and Jordie Benn scored 17 seconds later, both into an empty net.
Antti Niemi made 28 saves for the Stars.

* Johns' second goal of the season was the game-winner and came on Seguin's prettiest pass of the night. On a delayed penalty, the Stars had an extra skater and Johns found open space, where Seguin set him up for the one-timed shot. "It was a great pass by (Seguin). When one of the best players in the world has the puck on his stick you try to get open and he's going to find you," Johns said.

* Niemi made his biggest stop with 31 seconds remaining in the second period after Dallas turned the puck over behind the net. Stastny fired a wrist shot from the right circle, but Niemi kicked it away with his right pad to preserve a 2-1 lead.

* Klingberg helped the Stars bounce back after allowing a game-tying goal in the second period. During 4-on-4 play, Benn had a breakaway stopped by Allen, but the Stars captain gathered the rebound and made a pass to Klingberg, who scored into the corner.

* Steen nearly scored his 200th career NHL goal at 8:22 of the third period when he put a rebound past Niemi. Dallas challenged the play, and a review determined Patrick Berglund interfered with Niemi.

"I didn't feel like I was going to use my timeout, so I might as well use (the challenge) and take a crack at it," coach Lindy Ruff said.

* Dallas had 12 players in the lineup that played in the Western Conference Semifinals against St. Louis while the Blues had 17 … Dallas forward Jiri Hudler missed the game because of illness … Forward Ryan Reeves was a healthy scratch for St. Louis for the first time this season.

Blues Quotes

"I think this is a tough time for us right now. We're not playing very well. We're not all on board where we should be." Ken Hitchcock said.
"Well, it's not the end of the world, but we have to turn this around quickly, so it's pretty close to being (must-win time)." David Perron

Stars Quotes

"As a team we've been talking about when we get opportunities they're going to go in. We knew the results were going to come."
"Nice to get some results, we've been talking about it going in the right direction (the past couple games). We played much more Stars hockey in Columbus (on Tuesday), that fast pace, (defense) active joining plays, everyone doing their jobs and trusting each other." Seguin said.
"I think it was pretty big. I just saw four guys shrinking down … I was just trying to find a spot on open ice and Jamie played a pretty good pass." Klingberg said.

Columbus Blue Jackets @ Blues 1-2 OT - Saturday, November 5, 2016


The St. Louis Blues have struggled to score goals of late, often resulting in them deviating from their game plan. On Saturday, the Blues stuck with it and got a victory when Vladimir Tarasenko scored with 42.1 seconds remaining in overtime for a 2-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Scottrade Center. Tarasenko cut around Columbus forward Brandon Saad and beat goalie Curtis McElhinney with a wrist shot from inside the left faceoff circle to give St. Louis (6-4-2) its second win in the past six games. The Blues have scored two or fewer goals in six straight games and eight out of nine. Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester also scored for St. Louis, and Carter Hutton made 20 saves. Josh Anderson scored for the Blue Jackets (5-3-2), who lost for the first time in four games, and McElhinney made 28 saves in his first game of the season.
The Blues had dominated the game until a Shattenkirk turnover led to Anderson's third goal in two nights. Getting some pressure from Columbus forward Boone Jenner in the St. Louis zone, Shattenkirk dangerously backhanded a pass into the slot, where Anderson picked it off and beat Hutton with a quick wrist shot at 12:55 of the second period to give the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead on their eighth shot of the game. Shattenkirk said Jenner got a piece of his stick to force the turnover. Bouwmeester scored his first goal of the season after taking Scottie Upshall's pass in stride. He stepped into a slap shot inside the left faceoff circle and beat McElhinney high to the short side 2:16 into the third period to tie the game 1-1.

* Alexander Steen was about to leave the ice to end his shift when he sent a cross-ice pass to Tarasenko, who gave Saad a little fake to the inside before skating around him for a clean look from just to the right of the left faceoff dot for the game-winner.

* McElhinney gave the Blue Jackets a chance when he robbed Blues center Jori Lehtera with a right-pad save with 2:59 remaining in overtime off a one-timer from the high slot.

* Bouwmeester's goal gave the Blues life after they had been held without a goal into the third period.

"[Bouwmeester's] shot really energized us," Hitchcock said.

* Upshall was part of a fourth line that gave the Blues energy, and he did so with a huge hit on Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson with 10:03 remaining in the game. Johnson was called for charging against St. Louis forward Dmitrij Jaskin 10 seconds later to put the Blues on the power play.

* The Blue Jackets scored one goal a night after they scored 10 against the Montreal Canadiens, the most in their history. ... Blues right wing Nail Yakupov was a healthy scratch for the first time this season.

"The amount of times that we've been pouring into meetings over the last few days since [a 5-0 loss at the New York Rangers on Tuesday], it hasn't been a great feeling around this locker room. I think to just finally have something positive to build off of and keeping our minds." said Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who got an assist on Tarasenko's game-winner.

"It's a battle right now. It's a battle to score, it's a battle to finish. We've got to get points. ... We've just got to dig in. We made some steps today." Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said.

"It was a good play by [Upshall]. I don't know if they were coming off a change or some sort of transition. The whole side of the ice was kind of open. It's good when you get a chance like that." Jay Bouwmeester.

Jay Bouuwmeester's 1,000th game. 

Colorado Avalanche @ Blues 1-5 - Sunday, November 6, 2016


The St. Louis Blues came at the Colorado Avalanche in waves during the first period and thrived on momentum. The Blues felt they had been playing well enough to break out of a slump that saw them score two or fewer goals in six straight games, and it came together in a 5-1 win against the Avalanche at Scottrade Center. The Blues (7-4-2), who defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 in overtime Saturday, got goals from Robby Fabbri, Jori Lehtera, Jaden Schwartz, Scottie Upshall and David Perron. Kevin Shattenkirk had three assists, and goalie Jake Allen made 22 saves. The Avalanche (5-6-0) were coming off a 1-0 win against the Minnesota Wild at home on Saturday. Matt Duchene scored and goalie Semyon Varlamov stopped 20 on 25 shots before being replaced at the start of the third period by Calvin Pickard, who made three saves.

The Avalanche have scored three goals the past four games. The Blues scored in the first period for the first time in seven games and did so twice in a span of 1:58. Fabbri scored off a 2-on-1 with Dmitrij Jaskin and beat Varlamov short side 1:37 into the game to give the Blues a 1-0 lead. Lehtera put the Blues ahead 2-0 when he took Carl Gunnarsson's pass in the slot and sent a quick shot over Varlamov at 3:35 of the first. The Avalanche got to within 2-1 when Duchene tipped Francois Beauchemin's point shot at 6:38 of the second period.

The Blues scored three straight in 4:12 during the second. Schwartz tipped Alexander Steen's shot at 14:54 that broke a 0-for-19 power-play drought. Upshall's slap shot from the right circle at 17:03 made it 4-1, and Perron scored his first goal in seven games at 19:06 to make it 5-1.

* The Blues' fourth line isn't known for its scoring, but it was on par with three guys doing their jobs to set up Upshall's goal. Kyle Brodziak checked the puck off for a turnover, Ryan Reaves made the cross-ice backhand feed and Upshall's one-timer finished it off.

* Allen didn't have a particular busy night, but he came up with his best save after moving from right to left to kick out forward Rene Bouque's wrist shot with 11:56 remaining.

* Gunnarsson made a smart play by being patient. In doing so, he was able to calmly slip the puck to Lehtera in the slot to help the Blues take a 2-0 lead and ride the early momentum in the game.

* The Avalanche had grabbed momentum in the second period, but Reaves helped turn it back around for the Blues by inducing a tripping penalty on Colorado defenseman Patrick Wiercioch at 14:09 to help set up a power-play goal.

* Colorado right wing Blake Comeau (groin) did not play and was replaced by Cody McLeod. ... There was a moment of silence for former Avalanche forward Marek Svatos, who died Saturday at age 34. ... Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson sustained an upper-body injury in the first period and did not return.

"I would say this is going to be a little past days. It's not going to be day to day here. It's going to be a little more extended than that." Hitchcock said.

"First period today was the best period we've played all year. Just our puck pursuit, our tenacity, our secondary forecheck was excellent. ... Looked like a team that was right on the mark. We could have really put it away in the first period. When you're drawing up the game plan, that's exactly the way you want. I was really happy the way we played in the first period."

"First period today was the best period we've played all year. Just our puck pursuit, our tenacity, our secondary forecheck was excellent. ... Looked like a team that was right on the mark. We could have really put it away in the first period. When you're drawing up the game plan, that's exactly the way you want. I was really happy the way we played in the first period." Ken Hitchcock.

"It was a good feeling when you saw one line go out and have a great shift and we were following it and not taking any shifts off. It was great to see us doing that for three periods. It felt like it was my first goal like I got last year. Just get that weight off the shoulders. Just keep building off that now and keep going." Fabbri said.

"I draw the penalty because I can't skate and then I blacked out on the pass." Ryan Reaves

"You saw what happened. I gave up five goals. It is my fault; I'll take [the blame]." Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov