Sabres At Blues Final Score: St. Louis Scores Two More In Third, Win 4-2

It’s been a while since the Blues’ve scored four goals. To start the month of January off they netted four against the Coyotes, Oilers, and Avalanche, and haven’t done so since. Their offensive hiccups seemed to be solved pretty well tonight, and the Blues handed Buffalo their 12th straight road loss.

The Blues began the period’s scoring on a power play. Thomas Vanek was called for hooking, and the Blues wasted no time capitalizing on it. A clean face-off win and great positioning by David Backes by the net led to what would be the game winning goal for the Captain:

The two goal lead was short lived, however. Five minutes after Backes’ goal, T.J. Oshie was called for both roughing and then for an unsportsmanlike conduct for sharing his opinion of the original call with the ref. Unfortunately, Tyler Myers found the back of the net here, though thankfully the goal was scored on the second of Oshie’s penalties, making sure the Blues were back at full strength to close out the period.

Backes potted the empty netter to seal the deal, and cap off his four point night. So far this month, the Blues are 8-0-1, getting 17 of 18 points. Unfortunately, tonight was the last of the five-game homestand, with the Blues facing a very important game Monday night in Detroit. They dropped their last two in the Motor City, blowing a two goal lead in one to lose 3-2, and getting shut out in the other 3-0.

Tonight’s win bumps the Blues up to 4th in the Western Conference, and continues their excellent home record to 21-3-3. Detroit has won a franchise record 16 games straight at Joe Lewis, however, so Monday will be a tough day-trip to Detroit for the Blues.

Sabres At Blues Score: Blues Have Strong Second Period, Pull Ahead 2-1

Well, that was an improved period. Whatever Ken Hitchcock’s technique for getting the team in shape is, it works. Granted, it wasn’t as sharp as it could have been still — lots of turnovers and just general non-observant plays — but with two goals in the second period, I can’t see too much of a problem.

The first goal of the period — the equalizer — was scored by none other than B.J. Crombeen. Crombeen, who missed a pretty decent chunk of the season, scored his first of the year in pure sniper form, which is a form he’s certainly not used to:

The second of the period was a bit of a flukey bounce off of David Perron, but I’m fairly sure that Perron’s happy for his fourth goal of the season regardless of how it went in:

T.J. Oshie, who had the initial shot before the re-direct and David Backes had the assists on the goal. That was Backes’ team-leading 21st assist and added on to his also team-leading point total, boosting it to 35.

Sabres At Blues Score: Sabres End Halak's Shutout Streak, Lead 1-0

All that talk about a personal best shutout streak by Jaroslav Halak was probably not the best idea for a discussion topic. As any hockey fan knows, if you mention the word “shutout” in relation to your goaltender, bad things happen, and lo – said bad thing was a goal by Mike Weber past Halak to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead going into the first intermission:

Not a terrible goal to allow (not that there’s any good type) but it was written on the wall with the fact that the Blues’ defense wasn’t nearly as tight as it needed to be that period. Granted, Buffalo has looked fairly bad so far, but the Blues are matching them in their apparent lack-of-interest. The Sabres have lost four games in a row, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t approach this game with some level of seriousness. They had about three spectacular chances to bury it this period and whiffed. Things like that have a bad habit of coming back to haunt a team.

Sabres At Blues: Buffalo's Road Woes Continue As St. Louis Keeps Rolling

The Buffalo Sabres have allowed 19 goals so far in their very long road trip away from home. The Blues're coming off of back-to back shutouts at home, but haven't been lighting the lamp much. Are the Sabres the cure to the Blues' scoring woes?