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Blues Lineup:
The Blues would play these lines tonight in Ottawa: Jaden Schwartz/Paul Stastny/Vladimir Tarasenko...Robby Fabbri/Patrik Berglund/Troy Brouwer...Dmitrij Jaskin/David Backes/Magnus Paajarvi...Scottie Upshall/Kyle Brodziak/and the return of Ryan Reaves after serving the three game suspension. On defense would be: Jay Bouwmeester/Alex Pietrangelo...Carl Gunnarsson/Kevin Shattenkirk...Joel Edmundson/Colton Parayko. Starting goalie would be Jake Allen.
Game Highlights:
After seeing the trade deadline come and go, it would be refreshing to see all the new faces in the Blues...wait, what do you mean they didn't do anything? Huh? Well with that being said, the Blues would look to win game number two in a row. Their opponent tonight would be the Senators. The Blues would start out firing against a team that gives up an average of over 33 shots a game. Dmitrij Jaskin would score first for the Blues tonight as he would beat Anderson on the rebound.
It would be Jaskin's fourth goal of the season and Schwartz(7) and Pietrangelo(22) would get the assists on the play. Schwartz wasn't done on the score sheet just yet though as a few moments later he would score on the power play. This time on a rebound from a David Backes chance in front of the net for a 2-0 good guys lead.
Schwartz scores his fifth goal of the year. The aforementioned Backes(19) and Shattenkirk(22) would notch the assists and the Blues would be cruising at this point. They would finish the first period with 19 shots on net and had the better of the scoring chances in the period. Jake Allen would have to wake up in the second period though as the Senators would show a little more life as the game progressed. Jake Allen would deny Mika Zibanejad and say no to the rebound with his glove and preserve the two goal Blues lead.
A few minutes after this save, the beautiful Russian Blues Hockey Jesus Vladimir Tarasenko (or you know, whatever) would hit a milestone once again in his young career.
Thirty goals on the year for Tarasenko and another Blues powerplay goal. Three nothing lead and all was well in St. Louis Blues land. Shattenkirk(23) and Schwartz(8) get the assists on the play. Just two minutes later though things would start getting rocky for the boys in Blue.
Fast forwarding to the third period now. Or the part of the game that the Blues like to sit back because they have a lead. Jean-Gabriel Pageau would score from weird angle with less than 3 minutes to go.
Nothing can go wrong at this point right? Game will finish 3-2 and nothing will happen in the final two minutes...except for EVERYTHING that happened in the final two minutes. Alex Pietrangelo would be called for tripping giving the Senators a power play. The Senators then pulled their goalie making it a 6 on 4 affair. Jake Allen didn't care.
What a glove save by Allen. That save would have been even greater if the Senators hadn't done this with POINT ONE SECONDS on the clock.
Longest, dumbest .1 second EVER. The Blues would earn the Gary Bettman participation point and go on to overtime. In overtime the Blues wouldn't manage much. Well they would somehow manage to get 56 ice time for 3 on 3. Jake Allen would come up big late in OT though as he would deny Mark Stone not once but twice.
We move on to the trainwreck shootout now and the fourth round as Allen would once again come up big.
The shootout would go on for another SEVEN rounds until finally (thankfully) Patrik Berglund would teach us how to Bergie and finally put a puck in the net for the Blues win.
Blues get their two points and win it 4-3 in the shootout. That win would (somehow) move them into a first place tie for the Central (and the West) with Chicago and Dallas. (Chicago was idle and Dallas lost to the Perds) It's shaping up to be an interesting last few weeks of the season. The Blues do not however play again until Sunday night as they take on the Wild.
Miscellaneous Fun:
See also, most of the fanbase at this point:
When your team is in the 11th round of the shootout and you just can't watch ... #STLvsOTT pic.twitter.com/gV4qi2J0xw
— FOX Sports Midwest (@FSMidwest) March 2, 2016
Somehow Bernie has missed this happening this year....
Bernie Federko: "Very uncharacteristic for the Blues to actually give up a two-goal lead." #sigh
— St Louis Game Time (@StLouisGameTime) March 2, 2016
And Finally, it was a big night for ol' number 91.
Snake Shines in Shootout pic.twitter.com/bYZKLPMSux
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) March 2, 2016
Three Stars:
Third Star: Dion Phaneuf (1 assist, pretty much an asshole)
Second Star: Jaden Schwartz (1 goal, 2 assists, actually watched shootout)
First Star: Jean-Gabriel Pageau (2 goals, they spelled Jake Allen wrong)