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Brian Elliott just wound up with his third shutout in a row, bumping him up to fourth overall on the Blues' all-time list. The last goaltender to get three road shutouts in a row was Jaques Plante in 1968, and he also used to own the Blues' all-time road shutout streak. Never mind about that, because that record is Brian Elliott's too at 189 minutes and 31 seconds.
Who could have expected this? Last season, sure. Elliott was playing out of his gourd. This year after a strong start, Ells dropped like a stone and the team went with him. Now that he's got his head on straight and the team is playing their best, smartest hockey of the year? They look nearly unstoppable as a group.
How unstoppable? Roman Polak scored. Polak, who had not scored in a game for over two seasons, did this tonight:
That was a great pass by Chris Stewart, but the highlight of the clip was big 'ol Polak skating up to the net and no one paying any attention to him. Why should they? Well, because he's a hockey player camped out in prime scoring real estate. I don't care who that player is, you don't let them get into position like that. Lesson learned for the Wild.
The Blues second goal didn't come until the third period, where Vladimir Tarasenko used his hockey sense to make an incredible pass to Andy McDonald:
McDonald's backhand goal, his fifth of the year, was sharp, but Tarasenko's staying with the puck and fighting through the play is what did that. Never take these two off of the same line. Never.
The Blues killed off three penalties (though the last one was all of nine seconds), meaning that you have to go back to March 24's 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames to see the last power play goal allowed by the Blues.
This six game winning streak means that St. Louis has won every game in the month of April so far, and Friday night will be facing a very tough Columbus Blue Jackets team. Will Jake Allen be able to keep the win streak alive? As intelligently as the Blues have been playing, I don't see why not.