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After everyone and their brother recording a shot last night, the Blues would look to score a few more against the Stars. The Blues coming off a disappointing 3-1 loss to the Wild last night. Dallas was coming off of a 4-2 win in Washington on Friday night. The Blues in the second night of a back to back would start Jake Allen. The Stars would counter with Kari Lehtonen. The line combinations for the Blues would change once again from last night. Olli Jokinen and Petteri Lindbohm would get in tonight leaving Steve Ott and Robert Bortuzzo as the odd men out. To start the game we would see Jaskin playing with Backes and Oshie. That wouldn't last for the whole game. Keep reading though. Patrik Berglund would start in his 500th NHL game tonight.
First Period:
Boring. Boring. Boring. Compared to last night, you could count the SOG on one hand through most of the game. Hi Jake, welcome back:
The Stars would press early. The Blues (Allen) would have the answers. Nothing of real significance going on in the first.
Second Period:
Hey if you liked the first period. You LOVED the second. As it was more of the same. The dull boring type of hockey that was successful at putting people to sleep. (Caffeine helps with that) More of the same from Allen:
One thing for certain was that Jake brought his A game tonight. After being off for about two weeks, he looked very sharp. The Blues would take some really stupid penalties in this frame. The type of penalties that they should really know better in those situations. Good thing that the penalty kill was very stout to this point. With all the weapons that Dallas has on the man-advantage, giving them these opportunities was not a great idea. Luckily, Dallas wasn't able to find the back of the net in these situations. More line juggling for Hitch, as the top line was turned into Schwartz, Backes and Oshie. Jaskin would move down to the Lehtera and Tarasenko line. The 17/42/74 actually intrigued me. Toward the end of the period, they would have some time in the offensive zone.
Third Period:
The Blues would wake up in the third. That or the line shuffling paid off once again. Ok, it didn't really pay off in the first two periods, but it sure did in the third. Hitch put the lines back to where they were. No, really. I swear. The SOB/STL/Whatever you want to call them were all back. Vladdy Tarasenko would have a chance here on a 1 on 2. Still amazes me how he can get shots on goal with some force in these situations.
Speaking of Vladdy. He would open the scoring for the Blues. In only the way that he knows how. Beautifully Number 34, thank you very much:
The Stars would almost tie the game at one but a great heads up play by Alex Pietrangelo would keep the puck out of the net. He would end up finishing with 2 assists and the save of the game. He also played 28 minutes last night and 25 minutes tonight. Later in the period, the Blues would get a power play. And they would finally convert. By they, I mean the guy that's probably hit more posts than anyone on the team to this point, Alexander Steen:
Nice to hear, he scores, instead of off the goal post. Oshie would add this empty net goal, which even had him shaking his head:
It counts though and that would be the nail in the coffin, and the Blues would go on to win 3-0. Alexander Steen would become the fourth Blue to score 20 or more this season. Jake Allen would stop 28 shots on his way to his fourth shutout of the season. The penalty kill that has been so good as of late went 6-6 tonight, and has killed 29 out of the last 30 chances.
The Blues will continue the road trip on Tuesday, as they take on the Flames in Calgary.