Saturday 15 April 2017

NHL - Blues - Round Up - April 02-09, 2017


Nashville Predators @ Blues 1-4 - Sunday, April 02, 2017
The Nashville Predators clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs about 6 1/2 hours after they lost 4-1 to the St. Louis Blues at Scottrade Center. The Predators (40-28-11) clinched when the Los Angeles Kings lost 2-1 to the Coyotes. Ryan Johansen scored, and Juuse Saros made 21 saves for the Predators, who went 2-3-0 playing five games in seven days. St. Louis (43-28-7) is two points ahead of Nashville for third place in the Central Division with one game in hand. Alexander Steen and David Perron scored for St. Louis in the second period to break a 1-1 tie.

Allen made 35 saves and is 9-1-2 in his past 12 starts, allowing two or fewer goals in 10 of 12. Perron had a goal and two assists, and Vladimir Tarasenko and Joel Edmundson also scored for the Blues, who are 5-0-1 in their past six games at home and 12-1-2 in the past 15 games. Tarasenko gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 5:22 of the first period, 19 seconds after a Nashville power play that included 1:04 of 5-on-3. Johansen tied it 1-1 at 11:22 during a 5-on-3 power play. Steen put the Blues ahead 2-1 55 seconds into the second after a pass by Perron, who made it 3-1 at 6:47.
Edmundson made it 4-1 at 8:11 of the third period.

* Perron fought off Predators defenseman P.K. Subban and curled around him before finding the corner of the net with a wrist shot from the right circle.
"This team rises to the occasion this year. We've done it in big games, games that have mattered. I wasn't surprised by the effort. I thought emotionally we were really invested. We did a really good job of getting into the game. These afternoon games are always a little bit challenging, but it didn't really faze us." Alex Pietrangelo
"Both our goalies have been playing so well. It's given us a lot of confidence. It's a sense of calm, I think defensively we're playing extremely smart." Alexander Steen
"It was a big game; this has been on our schedule for a while. We knew it was going to come down to between us and Nashville there for the race in the standings. We were ready, we played well. We got out of that first 10 crazy minutes there with not much harm done, and that carried some momentum for us." Jake Allen said.
"It was a real strong effort. You could tell right from the beginning that the emotion and the intensity was there. We didn't have to say a lot as a staff. The guys, they were clearly ready for this one." Mike Yeo said.


Blues @ Florida Panthers 6-3 - Thursday, April 06, 2017
The St. Louis Blues maintained their lead for third place in the Central Division with a 6-3 win against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center. The Blues (44-29-7) are one point ahead of the Nashville Predators in the division. Nashville defeated the Dallas Stars 7-3. St. Louis has one game in hand. Patrik Berglund and Alex Pietrangelo scored power-play goals 3:12 apart in the third period to break a 3-3 tie. Ryan Reaves, Vladimir Tarasenko, David Perron and Jaden Schwartz also scored for the Blues, who are 13-2-2 in their past 17 games. St. Louis would play the Minnesota Wild in the Western Conference First Round if the Blues finish third. Berglund scored at 10:37 to make it 4-3 before Pietrangelo redirected Schwartz's pass at 13:49 to give St. Louis a 5-3 lead. Schwartz added an empty-net goal with 59 seconds left to make it 6-3. Vincent Trocheck, Michael Matheson and Denis Malgin scored for the Panthers (33-36-11), who have lost six in a row. It was Trocheck's first goal since Feb. 28, ending a 17-game drought. James Reimer, back in the lineup after missing three games because of an upper-body injury, made 32 saves. Reaves gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 12:16 of the first period when he beat Reimer on a breakaway with a shot between the legs after a turnover in the neutral zone. Reaves tied his NHL career high with his sixth goal of the season. Trocheck tied it 1-1 at 6:41 of the second on a 2-on-1 when he beat Jake Allen with a wrist shot to the stick side.
Tarasenko gave St. Louis a 2-1 lead 56 seconds later when his wrist shot from the top of the circle hit the crossbar and the rebound bounced off the back of Reimer's leg. Matheson tied it 2-2 with a wraparound 55 seconds into the third period. Perron gave St. Louis a 3-2 lead at 5:36 before Malgin tied it 3-3 at 7:45 with a one-timer from the top of the right circle.

* Berglund positioned himself in the slot and got his stick on Jordan Schmaltz's shot from the point to put it past Reimer on the blocker side.
* Perron's goal came after defenseman Colton Parayko carried the puck into the Florida zone. Parayko lost control, but the puck went between Matheson's legs before Perron retrieved it near the bottom of the right circle. He cut to the front of the net and toe-dragged across the crease before flipping the puck past a sprawled Reimer.
"The third period was good. The first two periods I thought we had good spurts and we had bad spurts too. We need to hopefully get a little bit more consistent the last couple of games, but big win for us and job done." Jake Allen
"Tonight was a huge step. I think it's huge in the [Stanley Cup Playoffs], the less travel you can do. Obviously every team is going to give you a good run. But I think the less travel and not having to go [play the Anaheim Ducks] or Edmonton [Oilers], it would be huge and we need to secure third place." Perron said.

Blues @ Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 SO - Saturday, April 08, 2017
The St. Louis Blues clinched third place in the Central Division with a 5-4 shootout win against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. The Blues (45-29-7) will play the Minnesota Wild in the Western Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The playoffs begin Wednesday; the schedule will be announced Sunday. Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Tarasenko scored in the shootout, and Carter Hutton made 34 saves, including three in the shootout, for St. Louis. Scottie Upshall, Alex Pietrangelo and Tarasenko each had two points.
The Hurricanes (35-31-15) have lost five in a row. The Blues scored 26 seconds into the game. Ivan Barbashev got the rebound of Pietrangelo's shot from the point and finished into an open net to make it 1-0.

Klas Dahlbeck tied it 1-1 with his second goal of the season at 9:10. He used Pietrangelo as a screen and beat Hutton with a wrist shot to the far post.
Jeff Skinner's 36th goal gave Carolina a 2-1 lead at 19:31. Hutton stopped Brett Pesce's shot through traffic but kicked the rebound to Skinner for the tap-in.
St. Louis made it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 5:19 of the second period. Pietrangelo set up Alexander Steen for his 16th goal on a one-timer. The Blues scored with seven seconds remaining on the man-advantage after keeping the puck in the offensive zone throughout. Joakim Nordstrom put the Hurricanes back on top 3-2 at 14:11 when he chipped Sergey Tolchinsky's pass into the net on a backhand. Tolchinsky was playing his first NHL game of the season after being recalled from Charlotte of the American Hockey League. St. Louis tied it 3-3 at 19:06. Ryan Reeves carried the puck through the neutral zone and scored from above the faceoff circle on a low shot to the far post. Upshall's shorthanded goal 2:03 into the third period gave St. Louis a 4-3 lead. He beat Noah Hanifin to a loose puck in the neutral zone then raced in on Ward to score on the forehand. Skinner scored his second of the game when he went behind the net before reaching back to tuck the puck inside the left post to make it 4-4 at 9:14. The goal was Skinner's 17th in the past 18 games.
* Upshall gained speed through the neutral zone and scored after a backhand deke.
* The Blues went 17-6-1 in their final 24 road games. … The Hurricanes finished 23-12-6 (52 points) at home, the sixth time they have had 50 or more points at home in a season. ... Skinner had his seventh multigoal game of the season.

"It's nice [Clinching third place in the Central Division]. You just want to win as much as you can. You hate to say you want to play a certain team or anything like that. For us, it's more about going into the playoffs playing the right way." Carter Hutton.
"We saw this morning the MS walk they did. A lot of people showed up and their team showed support like that. I was able to give him [Bryan Bickell] a tap on the pads. It's very admirable what he's gone through. The hockey community supports him, and it's nice to see the Canes support him."
"I thought our second period was great. We generated some chances, we started to play physical. We created some momentum. We found a way to maintain that." Scottie Upshall said.
"It feels really good. That was something we set our sights on, and it's really impressive from our group, to be honest with you. The last couple months have been quite a run, and now we can get excited and get geared up for a real tough opponent." Mike Yeo said.
"I saw Upshall driving and he took a couple guys with him. So I was just trying to put it into some traffic. I don't think the goalie saw it." Reaves said.

Colorado Avalanche @ Blues 2-3 - Sunday, April 09, 2017
Vladimir Sobotka scored for the St. Louis Blues in his first NHL game since 2014 in a 3-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Scottrade Center. Sobotka, who played the past three seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League, tied it 2-2 at 3:20 of the third period. He signed a three-year, $10.5 million contract with the Blues on Thursday. Zach Sanford and Vladimir Tarasenko also scored, and Jake Allen made 32 saves for the Blues (46-29-7), who will face the Minnesota Wild in the Western Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Tarasenko put St. Louis ahead 3-2 at 4:39 of the third and nearly got his 40th to end the season but missed an empty net with under a minute remaining. Mikko Rantanen had a goal and assist, Francois Beauchemin scored and Calvin Pickard made 24 saves for the Avalanche (22-56-4). Colorado finished the regular season with 12 consecutive road losses (0-11-1) and one win in its final 24 road games (1-21-2). Sanford put the Blues ahead 1-0 at 19:37 of the first period.
Beauchemin tied the game 1-1 at 4:03 of the second period, then Rantanen put the Avalanche ahead 2-1 at 15:02.

* Tarasenko's 39th goal came after he skated from the right boards around to the left circle before snapping a shot off the short side post past Pickard.
* Lehtera sent a blind backhand pass to Sobotka, who scored into the open net.
"Jori made really nice pass to me," Sobotka said. "I had open net and just needed to shoot it on net."
* With Alex Pietrangelo scratched, defenseman Colton Parayko led the Blues with 23:02 of ice time, and had two shots and two hits.
* Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon played his 300th NHL game. ... Sobotka's last NHL game was April 27, 2014 in a 5-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round of the playoffs. ... Pietrangelo and veteran forwards Scottie Upshall and Kyle Brodziak were scratched by the Blues.

"Pretty impressive for me. The goal aside, obviously we bounced him [Vladimir Sobotka] around a couple different lines, seemed to adjust to that fine. But for him coming in, I don't want to say that I set the bar low, but understanding that he hasn't been on the ice for 11 days prior and understanding the travel from Europe and what that can do for you, understanding that he hasn't played in North America for a couple years, I thought it was a real strong game for him. You can see his hockey sense, you can see his competitiveness and obviously he's got a skillset to go along with that." Mike Yeo 

"I'm really happy for him [Vladimir Sobotka]. We were missing [Sobotka] the last couple years. He's a great guy and great player."
"It happened. The season is over now. We all focus on Minnesota." Tarasenko said.
"I was a little nervous before the first shift... On the way here, I was kind of thinking about things when I played here. Everything came back and it was a really nice feeling." Sobotka said.

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