Blues defeat Avs for fifth straigh win
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs St. Louis Blues.The St. Louis Blues continued their winning ways but had their shutout streak end in a 3-1 victory against the Colorado Avalanche at Scottrade Center on Tuesday.
The Blues (46-22-9) won their fifth straight game and 11th in the past 13, but their shutout streak ended at 258:29 when Colorado’s Mikhail Grigorenko scored to tie the contest 1-1 late in the first period.
David Backes and Troy Brouwer each scored on the power play, Alexander Steen had two assists in his first game since Feb. 20 and Vladimir Tarasenko got his Blues-leading 36th goal to help St. Louis keep pace with the Dallas Stars in the race for first place in the Central Division. The Blues and Stars, who defeated the Nashville Predators 5-2, each have 101 points.
St. Louis had not allowed a goal during its four-game winning streak and was attempting to tie the modern NHL record of five straight shutouts held by the Phoenix Coyotes and goalie Brian Boucher (Dec. 31, 2003-Jan. 9, 2004).
Blues goalie Brian Elliott made 20 saves, but his personal shutout streak ended at 193:12. He is 10-0-1 in his past 12 starts
Grigorenko’s goal was the first allowed by St. Louis with a goalie in net in 280:02 and first at 5-on-5 in 304:39.
Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov made 24 saves.
The Avalanche (39-34-4) is now five points behind the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Colorado and Minnesota, which defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 on Tuesday, each has five games remaining.
Brouwer scored the Blues' second power-play goal 9:30 into the second period off a feed from Paul Stastny, who received a long stretch pass from Steen. Stastny's saucer pass set up Brouwer in the slot to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead.
Tarasenko took advantage of defenseman Chris Bigras’ error in the Colorado zone. Bigras whiffed on an attempted outlet pass, and Tarasenko beat Varlamov with a high wrist shot on the short side at 12:28 of the second.
The Blues opened the game in dominant fashion, and Backes reached 20 goals for the sixth time in his NHL career and for the fifth straight season.
Backes was in front of Varlamov and was able to tip Steen's shot from the point at 1:48 of the first period during a power play to give the Blues a 1-0 lead.
Steen missed 15 games with an upper-body injury.
Colorado settled into the second half of the first period and tied it with 1:48 remaining when Grigorenko converted Tyson Barrie's pass to the left circle to beat Elliott, who had made 74 consecutive saves over four-plus games.
St. Louis rookie left wing Robby Fabbri left the game in the third period after landing on his left leg awkwardly following a check from Colorado's Jack Skille.
-- by NHL.com --
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30/03/2016 - 08:00
