Blues Lineup:
Your forward lines for tonight's tilt with the Wild would look like this: Upshall, Steen, Backes...Berglund, Stastny, Tarasenko...Fabbri, Lehtera, Brouwer, and finally Paajarvi, Brozdiak, and Jaskin. Your D-pairings: Bouwmeester, Pietrangelo...Edmundson, Shattenkirk and Gunnarsson, Parayko. Starting goaltender would be Brian Elliott. For some wild (see what I did there?) reason both Thomas Vanek and Jason Zucker were both healthy scratches for tonight's game.
First Period:
Alexander Steen would open the scoring in the first for the Blues. Well, he would have had the linesmen not blown the play dead before Steen shot the puck into the net. From what it looked like, the play was blown dead because the Blues were offside. (They weren't) Not only that the Wild had too many men on the ice. Blues don't get the goal. Also, this happened:
Scottie Upshall reached 500 penalty minutes with that high-sticking minor ... and was nowhere near the play. #stlblues
— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) February 7, 2016
Blues had some decent chances but score would read 0-0 after one period. Shots were 9-7 in favor of the Blues. They also added to the powerplay scoreless streak which stood at 0-24 until...
Second Period:
The Blues did something crazy...SCORED ON THE POWERPLAY:
Tarasenko's powerplay goal was the first powerplay goal for the Blues in 25 chances. Vladdy scores his 26th of the year. Paul Stastny(20) and Alexander Steen(28) get the assists on the play. Midway through the second period the Blues would get another powerplay opportunity and yes, another powerplay goal:
Jori Lehtera would cash in on the man advantage for his 7th goal of the year. Fabbri (9) and Brouwer(12) would get the assists. If you're keeping score, that's now two powerplay goals for the Blues. Not only were the Blues scoring goals but Brian Elliott was making great saves on the other end of the ice. Here he robs Niederreiter with a stellar save:
That save would spring the Blues down the ice leading to another goal:
Stastny gets his 6th goal of the year unassisted and the Blues now have a 3-0 lead. But late in the third a bullshit controversial goal was scored when Matt Dumba would score a goal with a broken stick:
Well, at least it wasn't a game winning overtime goal or anything...The Blues have a 3-1 lead after two despite getting outshot in the second period 24-8. Also, this:
Wild were on power play for 5:49 in second period.
— Tom Timmermann (@tomtimm) February 7, 2016
Third Period:
The Blues had a two goal lead. In the third period. Troy Brouwer made it a three goal lead in the third on his 11th goal of the year.
Fabbri(10) and Lehtera(16) would get the assists on the Blues third powerplay goal of the game. What powerplay slump right? The Wild appeared to have made it 4-2, but it was ruled off after video review showed it never having crossed the goal line. Pietrangelo would go down with what appeared to be a leg injury. A knee on knee hit to be more specific. Pietrangelo skated off on his own power, but did not comeback. He was "sore" after the game. Hopefully no missed time for him. The Blues would down the Wild 4-1 tonight despite the Wild having seven powerplay chances. The one they did score on was the broken stick goal. The Blues next game is the Jets Tuesday night at Scottrade.
Three Stars:
Third Star: Jori Lehtera (1 goal, 1 assist,)
Second Star: Paul Stastny (1 goal, 1 assist. Productive when his linemates aren't boat anchors)
First Star: Brian Elliott (39 saves in the win. Should've had a shutout but whatever)
Cool Kid of The Night:
Kids are awesome. If anyone knows him, the Blues are looking for him:
Anyone know the young fan in the @Lempaalanpoika jersey? We'd like to reward him for this nice gesture. #stlblueshttps://t.co/HgDmseJhKg
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) February 7, 2016