Blues At Devils Final Score: Blues Keep Up Domination Of The East, Win 3-2 In SO

You can’t ever accuse the Blues of not trying. Down 3-2 heading into the third period, it appeared the odds were against them. Jaroslav Halak had been pulled, and some of their best players — like Alex Pietrangelo and Kevin Shattenkirk — didn’t seem to be 100% on their game. No worries, though, to a team who is a powerful force in the third period. The Blues answered back 14:10 into the last period with a Patrik Berglund tip-in that had to be reviewed to make sure that it wasn’t off of a high stick. Thankfully the tall Berglund was innocent, giving him his 13th goal of the season.

That more than made up for the five minute powerplay that the Blues managed just three shots on. Curtis Foster hit Chris Porter awkwardly into the boards, hurting the Blues’ forward around the eye area, and was given a boarding major and a game misconduct:

The Blues made it through the rest of a hectic third period and overtime to the shootout. Johan Hedberg has always been solid in these, and the Devils lead the league with 12 overtime/shootout wins, but tonight wouldn’t be their evening. T.J. Oshie scored past Hedberg on the Blues’ first try, and Elliott stopped attempts by Ilya Kovalchuk (technically a miss — terrible attempt by Kovy) and Patrik Elias.

The Blues are back in town both Saturday and Sunday, with back-to-back games against the Colorado Avalanche and the San Jose Sharks. Tonight’s win and Nashville’s loss helped give the Blues a bit of a comfort zone in tonight’s standings… at least for now.

Blues At Devils Second Period Score: Jaroslav Halak Pulled In Two Goal Second

The second period began with such promise. A quick, up-tempo first period led into another up-tempo one, with neither team showing a glimmer of the trap-style hockey that they both are accused of playing.

David Perron continues his hot streak with his third goal in two games. After some complicated dangling by David Backes, Perron got the puck far out and shot it past Johan Hedberg’s blocker to put the Blues up 2-1:

If that was a goal that Moose should have had, the next one 45 seconds later was one that Halak should have had — it was basically the same kind of shot that squeaked past Hedberg:

Rookie of the year candidate Adam Henrique blasted a shot past Halak that he had a perfect view of. The next goal wasn’t one that Halak could have stopped, but Ken Hitchcock pulled him anyway to shake up — and hopefully wake up — his team. You absolutely cannot leave Ilya Kovalchuk alone, and you have to remember that he’s as prone to make a perfect pass as he is to blast a shot past your goalie. The Blues got a reminder of this the hard way with this beautiful Patrik Elias goal:

Hopefully that goal woke the team up, and the Blues come out roaring in the third period. Lapses like the kind that they had in the second are the kind that can cost the team two valuable points.

Blues At Devils First Period Score: Zach Parise And Chris Stewart Have Game Tied 1-1

A “fast first period” wasn’t exactly what a person would expect from the St. Louis Blues and New Jersey Devils, but that’s exactly what we got tonight. The only penalty taken was a delay of game one by Barret Jackman. Unfortunately, that was all it took for Zach Parise to score on a wonky, flukey shot to put the Devils up 1-0. The shot, assisted by Ilya Kovalchuk, hit Jaroslav Halak’s glove and bounced in behind the goaltender:

Luckily for the Blues, it took Chris Stewart all of two minutes to score his eleventh goal of the season, poking the puck through Johan Hedberg’s legs:

So far so good, and so far so evenly matched. Not only do both teams have a goal, they also have seven shots on goal.

Blues At Devils: St. Louis' Domination Of The Eastern Conferece Set To Continue

Martin Brodeur is suffering from a sprained ankle, Matt D'Agostini is being tested for concussions, and Evgeny Grachev returns from Peoria tonight in a game that could promise to be one of the lower scoring affairs of the night.