The St. Louis Blues are surging: winners of five of their last six, and currently sitting pretty in the Western Conference playoff picture. But as the 24-18-1 Dallas Stars invade the Scotttrade Center tonight, St. Louis is learning that Dallas won't go easy. The Blues and Stars are locked in a scoreless tie after two periods thus far, in a game characterized by solid goalie play and a lot of penalties.

The first periods have been indicative of the score: fairly even play in all aspects of the game. The Blues hold a slight edge in shots on net (18 to 16) and hits (16 to 15), and a big lead in faceoff victories (24 to 10). Each team has accumulated 13 penalty minutes so far.

St. Louis' Scott Nichol and Dallas' Jake Dowell drew five minute major penalties for fighting midway through the second period.

Check out SB Nation's Blues blog St. Louis Game Time and our Stars blog Defending Big D for continued coverage of this game.