Recap: Blues Beat The Anaheim Ducks 2-0, Allen With The Shutout

Hello again, boys and ghouls! Tonight was a scary match up against the Ducks, but it turned out to be a better treat than we were expecting ... which is quite the trick.

The night started with quite a bit of apprehension. Carl Gunnarsson is in just his second game, so you can't expect him to be 100% up to speed yet. Paul Stastny is making progress, skating with the team in practice, but still isn't ready to return to action. Jake Allen was starting tonight, a youngster in his third appearance of the season, against one of the hottest teams in the league. Joakim Lindstrom is the latest to catch the plague/ebola/infection, so we take another hit to the roster. And to add even more misery to the situation, both T.J. Oshie and David Backes were declared out with concussions.

With the odds stacked against our team, we watched tonight's game with low expectations and a sense of impending doom.

Turns out... it wasn't as horribad as we had feared.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Warmup lines: Steen-Lehtera-Tarasenko, Schwartz-Berglund-Jaskin, Ott-Lapierre-Reaves, Leopold-Porter-Paajarvi. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StlBlues?src=hash">#StlBlues</a></p>&mdash; Andrew Allsman (@allsmandrew) <a href="https://twitter.com/allsmandrew/status/527968619682988033">October 30, 2014</a></blockquote>

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FIRST PERIOD

The Blues came out, and skated with Purpose. They were all over the puck, and the puck-carrier. The Ducks were never in possession of the puck for long without soon being swarmed with Blues checkers. The period ended with the Ducks leading in shots 13-9, but it didn't look that way on the ice. Early standouts were the guys on the "4th" line. Ryan Reaves missed a wide open net early in the period, but that line (and Maxim Lapierre in particular) seemed to always be carrying the puck into the offensive zone. Many were on odd-man rushes. Lapierre easily had his best game of the year, and possibly ever as a Blue. He was certainly a central figure tonight.

The highlight of the period, of course, was the goal scored by Alexander Steen. The original shot was by Carl Gunnarsson, but deflected off of Steen's body. This robbed Carl of his "first goal as a Blue", but was still good for his "first point as a Blue" as he still got the Assist.

A late power play yielded no results, but still looked pretty good overall.

SECOND PERIOD

The second began with just a few seconds of carryover power play time. Nothing happened there, but Blues fans were encouraged by the Blues continuing to play strong minutes. Allen had some particularly good saves, and the team supported him very well also. Still, a one-goal lead -especially against Anaheim- would never seem to be enough. An insurance goal (or 20) would sure help. Alas, none came. Both teams had a power play, but neither scored. Despite being in the lead, the Blues dominated the SOG tally. The Blues got 7 shots on net in this period, and held the Ducks to only 4. Jake Allen wasn't tested often, but he has up to the challenge when the need arose.

THIRD PERIOD

The Blues looked like they just might pull this off. Dare we dream that could happen? Barely 2 minutes into the 3rd period, Cam Fowler turned the puck over on a whiffed clearing attempt. Maxim Lapierre was on the puck immediately, and passed it over to Ryan Reaves. Reaves, having missed a juicy opportunity earlier, would not make the same mistake again. He buried the puck, and the Blues took a 2-0 lead.

Blues fans were sitting slightly more comfortably, cushioned by that two-goal lead. Now, the prime objective was to preserve the shutout for Jake. The Blues were up to the challenge, whether it was camping out in the Anaheim zone, winning faceoffs, blocking shots, or just generally harassing any Duck that dared to handle the puck.

As if things weren't dramatic enough, the Blues took two penalties with a slight overlap, leading to a short 5-on-3 power play for Anaheim. Jake and the Blues weathered that storm, and also the deluge from the Ducks pulling their goalie for an extra attacker. A late power play for the Ducks actually worked in the Blues favor, as they could now ice the puck legally. The best opportunity for the Ducks died - literally - on the goal line, as the puck squirted through Jake's legs but did not cross the goal line. Man of the hour(s) Maxim Lapierre was there to slide the puck to safety.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>GIF: Lapierre saves a goal <a href="http://t.co/rJpFWKGx2j">http://t.co/rJpFWKGx2j</a></p>&mdash; Steph (@myregularface) <a href="https://twitter.com/myregularface/status/528011109035683840">October 31, 2014</a></blockquote>

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Improbable result: Blues Win 2-0!

• The LehteraSenko pairing continued to work their magic. Every time they were on the ice, they were pushing the play into the Anaheim end. They are really quite something to behold. Steen as the third man on the line is a wonderful addition.
• The Blues were aces in the faceoff circle, winning 59% of the draws tonight. In particular, Jori Lehtera was 11 for 14, for a faceoff win percentage of 79%. Lapierre was no shlub either: his 8 for 11 was good for 73% tonight. Possession begins in the faceoff circle.
• Attendance was only 16,723 tonight. Maybe it was the injury news, or our past lack of success with the Ducks, but DAMN is that a bummer. C'mon St Louis.