Predators Vs. Blues Recap: Two Goal Leads *Ping* Are The *Ping* Worst.

The Blues and Predators got it on tonight at Scottrade. The Blues looking to bounce back after losing the back end of a back to back in horrendous fashion. The Predators were coming off of a 5-3 win against the Rangers the night before. Your starting goaltender would be Jake Allen once again. Although, if you had a chance to see, Brian Elliott has some sweet new pads. (Think Cujo) Starting in net for the Preds would be Carter Hutton and not Pekka Rinne. Your forward lines tonight would see Paajarvi continue to get top line minutes with Stastny and Tarasenko. Backes would center Steen and Brouwer. Fabbri would once again be with Jaskin and Lehtera. Reaves would share the ice with Brozdiak and Caron. Your defensive parings tonight would see Pietrangelo/Bouwmeester with Parayko/Shattenkirk and Bortuzzo/Gunnarsson.

First Period:

The Blues played a decent first period tonight. Jake Allen looked to be himself early on.

The line of Fabbri, Lehtera, and Jaskin has been one of the pleasant surprises of the "Hitch is going to juggle everything" experiment. No better way to exhibit that than with a goal. Dmitrij Jaskin would put the Blues up 1-0 in the first.

Jaskin nets his second goal of the year on the put back. Bouwmeester(10) and Pietrangelo (12) would get the assists on the play. There was a question of if Jaskin was maybe offsides on the play. The replay clearly shows that Jaskin tagged up before he touched the puck. Not sure what the Preds saw, but it was clearly a good goal.

Barret Jackman is no longer a Blue, but he still is a pain in the side of NHL teams. Just ask Vladdy.

The Blues would get a powerplay soon thereafter for Seth Jones holding. There was a goal scored, but it wasn't the Blues. The Preds would capitalize on a questionable icing call that would send the faceoff down to the Blues end.

Mattias Ekholm would capitalize on the face off win and sneak one past Allen for the 1-1 tie. That would also be the score after one period.

Second Period:

The Predators played the night before. Based on their play tonight, that didn't seem to matter. Jake Allen denies them on the powerplay in the early stages of the period:

More Jake Allen here as Kevin Shattenkirk almost gets an assist...for the wrong team:

Robby Fabbri is showing glimpses of just how good he can be. He would put the Blues ahead with his 9th goal of the year. Lehtera(10) and Jaskin (7) would get the assists on the play. What moves to get it past Hutton.

The Blues would have the lead for the rest of the period. You could tell that the Preds were gaining momentum throughout the period though, and that wasn't a good thing moving forward. The Blues would be outshot 17-7 in the period.

Third Period:

The third period would start out like the Blues thirds of late have, pretty damn good. Shatty would make up for his whoopsie mentioned earlier. How you ask? A goal!

Grip it and rip it baby. It's Shattenkirk's 6th goal of the year. Lehtera(10) and Parayko(10) would get the assists on the play. The Blues  have a two goal lead. The best lead on home ice in hockey right? Well maybe not.

The Predators would continue to push. The Blues for whatever reason would not. I don't understand why the Blues would just let off of the throttle like they did tonight, but as soon as the third goal went in, they went in to defensive mode. Which is great if it works. Which it seemed like it would until about 4 minutes left in the game.

Shea Weber would pull the Preds within one. There was really nothing that Allen could have done to save that, as I doubt he even saw it. Weber got it off pretty fast.  No worries though because the Blues still had a one goal lead.

Just as Hutton was going to the bench Colin Wilson would stuff it in to the back of the net and tie the game at three. The Preds just seemed like they had momentum for most of the game. It all came to a head in the third with the two goals at the end of the game. 3-3 tie after 3 and everyone gets a participation point.

Overtime:

The Blues skated circles around the Preds in OT. Lehtera and Tarasenko seems like a decent pair to have in the OT period:

The Blues would win this game thanks to the efforts of Paul Stastny and Alex Steen.

See what happens when you put Steen and Stastny together? Good, magical things. Like goals and assists and not having to carry 56 through a whole game. The Blues would go on to win 4-3 in OT after blowing the game late. A win is a win though right? If you say so. The Blues take on the Wild Thursday.

Three Stars:

Third Star: Shea Weber (1 goal, can shoot a frozen puck really hard)

Second Star: Dmitrij Jaskin (1 goal, 1 assist, actually saw decent ice time)

First Star: Alexander Steen (1 goal, won game with goal that probably shouldn't have needed to happen in the first place)