NHL - Blues - Round Up January 05-12, 2017

Carolina Hurricanes @ Blues 4-2 - Thursday, January 05, 2016

Jeff Skinner scored a tiebreaking power-play goal with 6:08 remaining in the third period, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-2 at Scottrade Center. Skinner's 14th goal came on a slap shot from the right circle that grazed off Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester and went into the top left corner. Derek Ryan scored twice, Jay McClement scored, and Jordan Staal and Brock McGinn each had two assists for the Hurricanes (17-14-7). Cam Ward made 21 saves. Joel Edmundson and Vladimir Tarasenko scored, and Jake Allen made 25 saves for the Blues (20-14-5), who were playing for the first time since defeating the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 in the 2017 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic. The Blues have gone 17 games since winning consecutive games and 21 since winning consecutively in regulation. The Blues again allowed an early goal when Ryan scored on a 2-on-1, beating Allen from inside the left dot 1:09 into the first period for a 1-0 lead. St. Louis allowed the first goal by Chicago 1:03 into that game. The Blues tied it 1-1 on Edmundson's second NHL goal, a shot from the left point short-side at 3:04 of the second period. Tarasenko scored a power-play goal at 7:27 to give the Blues a 2-1 lead, but McClement tied it 2-2 on a slap shot from the top of the right circle at 11:02.

Ryan scored into an empty net with 1:19 remaining.


* Tarasenko's goal was good execution between he and Robby Fabbri, who took a long pass from Tarasenko, waited patiently in the offensive zone before feeding Tarasenko in stride, and he beat Ward with a wrist shot.

* Allen made back-to-back stops on shorthanded attempts by Staal and Joakim Nordstrom with 8:16 and 8:14 remaining, respectively, in the third period of a 2-2 game.

* Skinner's goal was the result of pressure by the Hurricanes in the neutral zone before gaining the zone, and Skinner stepping into a slap shot just inside the right circle.
* Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin played a game-high 25:55, including 6:09 on the penalty kill. Slavin had an assist, was a plus-3 and blocked two shots.
* Rattie played a season-high 12:59 in his fifth game. … Hurricanes defenseman Justin Faulk was activated off injured-reserve after missing four games with a lower-body injury and played 21:46. ... Hitchcock remains five wins behind Al Arbour (782) for third all-time in NHL coaching victories. … Tarasenko's 19th goal was his third in two games.

"I thought that was our worst game of the year. I don't know what you guys saw, but from everyone, we need to look at ourselves in the mirror after that game. Unfocused, [didn't execute], and just didn't play our game at all." Allen said.
"This is attitude consistency. We needed to really dig in and regroup with each other and we didn't have enough people doing it today. You can't play the game when you're losing as many races to pucks and battles. That's the game." Ken Hitchcock

"It was fun. Scratched for 15 straight games and then getting thrown out there the first period, it was a little sluggish. But after the first I settled down, I thought I made some plays. To beat the Blues on home ice is not an easy feat, a good win for the boys." Hurricanes right wing Ty Rattie on facing his former team after being claimed on waivers Wednesday

Stars @ Blues 3-4 - Saturday, January 07, 2016
Once St. Louis Blues center Patrik Berglund stole the puck on the forecheck and got it back to the point to Kevin Shattenkirk, he was determined to get to the net. Shattenkirk recognized that, and Berglund did the rest, scoring with 1:54 remaining to give the Blues a 4-3 victory against the Dallas Stars at Scottrade Center. Berglund took the puck from Stars defenseman Johnny Oduya, and then backhanded it around the boards to Shattenkirk. He then tipped Shattenkirk's pass from just inside the blue line over goalie Antti Niemi's right shoulder from the bottom of the left faceoff circle to break a 3-3 tie. Paul Stastny had two goals and an assist, Vladimir Tarasenko scored, and Shattenkirk and Alexander Steen each had two assists for the Blues (21-14-5).

Carter Hutton made 25 saves. Lauri Korpikoski and John Klingberg each had a goal and an assist, and Patrick Eaves scored for the Stars (16-16-8). Kari Lehtonen allowed three goals on 14 shots before being replaced by Niemi, who made seven saves. Korpikoski scored his first goal in 23 games on a breakaway at 2:20 of the first period to give the Stars a 1-0 lead. Defenseman Jordie Benn's long pass off the wall sent Korpikoski into the Blues zone with speed. St. Louis scored the next two goals in the period. Stastny tied it 1-1 at 9:27, and Tarasenko scored a power-play goal with 3:17 remaining to make it 2-1. The Stars tied it 2-2 35 seconds into the second period when Eaves scored on the power play. Stastny scored on the power play at 7:51 on the Blues' first shot of the period to put St. Louis back ahead 3-2 and chase Lehtonen. Klingberg scored at 4-on-4 to tie it 3-3 with 1:25 remaining in the second.

* Klingberg skated through the Blues defense from the right point, and despite getting some resistance from Stastny's stick, he was able to get off a shot from the right hash marks that beat Hutton.

* Hutton got his right shoulder on Jiri Hudler's shot off a rebound at 10:54 of the second period after kicking out his right pad to deny Cody Eakin's shot to keep it a 3-2 Blues lead.

* Stastny scored his first goal after he tipped Brad Hunt's pass from the Blues zone at the red line and beat Stars defenseman Esa Lindell to the puck in the slot after it caromed off the end boards.

* Blues forward Nail Yakupov, who was a healthy scratch the previous five games, had a hit, a blocked shot and a plus-1 rating in 11:27 playing with Stastny and Steen. "He gave them some speed and tenacity and aggressiveness to the net," Hitchcock said.

* Hutton's assist on Stastny's first goal was the third of his NHL career. ... Stars center Tyler Seguin had his five-game point streak come to an end.

Blues Quotes

"I know he's very good with finding shot-passes and stuff like that, so instead of standing on the backdoor, I just kind of went to the other side and lost my guy, so great play by [Shattenkirk]. I thought it was going to get past [Niemi]; that's why I tried. It worked out. I knew I was going to tip it. I wasn't going to grab it or anything. It's a big goal, and good for us." Berglund said.
"A regulation win is more important for us, I think, trying to separate from the teams in back of us. Kind of a back-and-forth game. Hutton made some big saves there at the end, obviously a timely goal from [Berglund]." Stastny said.
"I don't care how [Paul Stastny] gets it in there, just get it in deep. I don't care how they do it. I don't care if they've got to put it in their back pocket and carry it in. Whatever they got to do to get the [darn] thing deep." Ken Hitchcock

Stars Quotes

"It's a frustrating game to lose. They score on a deflection that's pretty hard to do, and it goes in the net for them after we have two point-blankers to take the lead ourselves. It's a frustrating one." Jason Spezza said.
"I just saw three shots and three goals on (14) shots and tried to change the momentum of the game [replacing Lehtonen]."
"I think we had our opportunities in the third period. A couple good opportunities early and you don't score, you're not going to win the game." Lindy Ruff said.

Boston Bruins @ Blues 5-3 - Tuesday, January 10, 2016

The night belonged to Boston Bruins right wing David Backes, but it was his teammates who made it a triumphant return to the place Backes called home for 10 seasons. Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak each had three points when the Bruins defeated the St. Louis Blues 5-3 at Scottrade Center. Marchand had two goals and an assist, and Pastrnak had three assists for Boston, which led 3-0 after the first period on goals from Frank Vatrano, Brandon Carlo and Marchand. Backes played here for the first time since signing with Boston as a free agent July 1. Backes, who played 727 regular-season games with St. Louis, didn't have a point but had 17 penalty minutes. Vatrano and Torey Krug each had a goal and assist for the Bruins (22-17-5), who got 14 saves from Tuukka Rask and improved to 2-0-1 on their four-game road trip. Colton Parayko, Patrik Berglund and Kyle Brodziak scored for St. Louis (21-15-5), which finished a season-high six-game homestand 3-3-0. Jake Allen allowed three goals on 11 shots and was replaced at the start of the second period by Carter Hutton, who made 26 saves. The Blues have alternated wins and losses the past nine games and are 6-8-1 in the past 15 games. Vatrano gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 8:19 of the first period with a power-play goal after a failed clearing attempt by Brodziak.

Carlo scored after his shot ricocheted off the back boards and then off the side of the net before Allen kicked it into his own net for a 2-0 Bruins lead at 15:20. Marchand beat Allen with a shot from the right faceoff circle to the short side at 17:52 to make it 3-0. Krug scored Boston's second power-play goal in as many chances to make it 4-0 at 1:31 of the second. Parayko's first of the season, a power-play goal at 3:57 of the second, made it 4-1. Berglund's power-play goal with 9:46 to play cut Boston's lead to 4-2. Marchand scored into an empty net with 1:17 remaining for a 5-2 Bruins lead, and Brodziak scored with 25 seconds remaining to make it 5-3.

* Instead of allowing the Blues to build momentum, Krug built on the three-goal lead the Bruins built in the first period when he scored on a shot from the high slot that beat Hutton to the glove side off the inside of the crossbar.

* Hutton stopped Ryan Spooner with 6:18 remaining in the game with a sprawling right-pad save after Spooner made a nice curl through the crease.

* Vertically challenged Marchand's goal came from a shot on the short side that beat Allen.

* Bruins center Patrice Bergeron, who had two assists, played 20:56, led the Bruins with eight shots on goal, and won 15 of 29 faceoffs.

* Bruins defensemen Adam McQuaid (upper body) and Colin Miller (lower body) were injured and did not return. ... Marchand extended his point streak to four games (five goals, two assists). ... Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko played in his 300th game.

"It's frustrating. We're tired of talking about it, we're tired of answering the questions from outside our locker room. We need to be better, especially early on. I thought at points in the second and third, we showed spurts of what we had to do, but we've got to find a way to do it right from the start." Alex Pietrangelo said.
"This is really tough for me right now. The crazy thing is, I don't feel bad on the ice. I feel like I'm practicing well, I feel good out there. It's just pucks are getting behind me, and I've got to find a way to stop that sooner than later." said Allen, who's been pulled in three of his past five starts.

"It's special, but certainly something I've never experienced before and it was great to be back in the building and thankfully we jumped out to a decent lead because trying to bottle up everything on the ice was tough, no question about it. And the guys played amazing and they were able to get two points out of the game. I had the best seat in the house for most of the third period but that's part of the game." Backes said.

Blues @ Los Angeles Kings 1-5 - Thursday, January 12, 2016

Jake Muzzin and Tanner Pearson each scored twice to help the Los Angeles Kings defeat the St. Louis Blues 5-1 at Staples Center. Trevor Lewis scored for the Kings (21-17-4), who scored at least four goals for the third straight game. Marian Gaborik, Dustin Brown and Jeff Carter each had two assists, and Peter Budaj made 21 saves. Paul Stastny scored for the Blues (21-16-5). Jake Allen made 12 saves before being replaced by Carter Hutton 5:00 into the second period trailing 3-0. It was the second time in as many starts, and the third time in Allen's past five, that he has been taken out of the game. He's 3-7-0 in his past 11 starts. Hutton made 11 saves. Muzzin made it 1-0 at 3:18 of the first period with a power-play goal from the top of the left circle. Lewis made it 2-0 at 18:12. Muzzin increased the lead to 3-0 when he scored at 4:43 of the second period for his first two-goal game of the season and the second of his NHL career. Pearson made it 4-0 against Hutton 51 seconds later when he drove to the net and tipped in his rebound. Stastny made it 4-1 at 7:29 when a shot by Alexander Steen redirected off his skate. The goal was reviewed twice, once to determine if the puck was kicked and then when the Kings challenged for goalie interference, and the call was upheld each time. Pearson scored his 13th of the season with 12 seconds left in the second period to make it 5-1.

* Muzzin scored on an early four-minute power play to help accomplish a key goal.

"Our starts lately haven't been the greatest, so we kind of focused on that a little more," Muzzin said. "We've given up a few goals in the first period and we kind of wanted to play with the lead."

* With the Blues on the power play in the third period, Budaj made two saves on Colton Parayko. Parayko put a slap shot on net and Budaj made the stop before momentarily losing the puck when David Perron fell on top of him. The puck came back to Parayko, who shot again from the blue line, but Budaj stopped it and covered the puck.

* Brown provided the screen on Muzzin's first goal. Brown parked in front of Allen, and when the goalie looked left around Brown, Muzzin shot right.

* The Kings' second line got the puck through the neutral zone with ease and speed, and Pearson scored on a slap shot off the rush.
* Brown has 265 NHL assists, passing Mike Murphy for 10th on the Kings all-time list. … Gaborik had his first multipoint game of the season. … Muzzin's other two-goal game also was against the Blues (March 5, 2013). … Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo played his 500th NHL game.

"Obviously you can't let that many goals in, and we've been beating a dead horse (saying) we need better goaltending. But it seems like right now we're at a stage where every mistake goes in our net." Hitchcock said.
Hitchcock made it clear it's up to Allen to break out of his slump.
"This is on the athlete. There's times in your young career where you've just said you've had enough and you've got to go and turn it around the other way. He's in a position where he's the guy that has to really take charge here. He's got to man up and get better, and we've got to get better in front of him."
"I think the one thing that we have to address from a team-play standpoint is that we need to get way greasier, way dirtier into the garbage areas. That'll help us. We've scored quite a few goals as of late, but when you're playing against a team like L.A. who defends as well as they can defend, they made it hard on us and we didn't get there until the third period."