Phoenix Coyotes At St. Louis Blues Final Score: Blues Win 4-1 On Goals From Stewart, Berglund

Both Chris Stewart and Patrik Berglund have been missing in action recently. Not tonight. Berglund scored the empty netter at the end of the third period to ice the Blues’ victory at 4-1, but he worked hard for chances all night long. The empty net goal was Berglund’s ninth of the season:

The Blues were out-shot tonight 35-31, but proved that shots aren’t everything; the quality of the shots is what counts. Oshie’s second period power play goal has returned some sort of regularity to special teams scoring – at least by the Blues’ criteria.

St. Louis plays again Thursday night when the Edmonton Oilers, who just lost 4-3 to the Buffalo Sabres, come to town. They are without young phenom Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who is out with a left shoulder injury, so the Blues have one less youngster to defend against.

With tonight’s win, the Blues leapfrog the Minnesota Wild into fifth place in the Western Conference. Unfortunately, Detroit was victorious tonight against the Dallas Stars, so no divisional ground was gained.

Don’t forget to please visit spectr17’s YouTube channel – he’s the nice man that lets me post these highlight videos faster than NHL.com could ever get them up.

Phoenix Coyotes At St. Louis Blues Second Period Score: Blues Up 3-1

The Blues got back that missed breakaway opportunity that David Backes had in the first period courtesy of T. J. Oshie and his perseverance in going to the net and getting that rebound:

All three St. Louis goals have come from people either crashing the net or being in front of the net to screen/redirect shots. The Blues aren’t a finesse team, but they work hard and that’s what wins games.

Speaking of hard workers, Scott Nichol is a wrecking ball – which is impressive as he is 5’9" tall. He managed somehow to connect with Lauri Korpikowski more than a little high, sans penalty. Will Shanny be looking at this tomorrow morning?

Phoenix Coyotes At St. Louis Blues Score: Blues Lead 2-1

Solid period for the Blues until the dying moments of the period. The Blues easily could have ended this one already up 3-0, but still, two goals on a rusty Mike Smith are still two goals.

The first came from someone who Darren Pang predicted would have a big night thanks to his placement on David Backes’ line: Chris Stewart.

Barret Jackman made that whole play possible with his puck-battles. For whatever reason, Jackman has become the whipping boy for some Blues fans since the departure of former captain Eric Brewer, and plays like that make it obvious how unwarranted that is. David Perron fires it in, Backes gets the rebound to Stewart, and then Stewie scores on the rebound. Perfect, gritty goal – the kind of goal that the Blues pay Stewart to score.

The Blues’ second goal came from Jamie Langenbrunner on the redirection of a Barret Jackman slapshot:

Finally, the Coyotes’ Radim Vbrata scores to cut the lead by one. It came right after David Backes had a perfect short-handed breakaway attempt which was stoned by Smith. Instead of going into the second period up 3-0, the Blues allowed a powerplay goal to Phoenix and go in up just one.

Shots are 11-9 in St. Louis’ favor so far, while the Coyotes have had two power plays to the Blues’ one.

Phoenix Coyotes At St. Louis Blues: 2012 Begins With A Test

The Blues're starting off 2012 at home in a tilt against the Phoenix Coyotes. Can more than the top line produce tonight?