SB Nation St. Louis - St. Louis Blues At Pittsburgh Penguins: Blues Shut Down Sidney Crosby, Win 3-2 In OThttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/49009/stl-fave.png2011-11-24T09:33:36-06:00http://stlouis.sbnation.com/rss/stream/23473492011-11-24T09:33:36-06:002011-11-24T09:33:36-06:00St. Louis Blues At Pittsburgh Penguins Final Score: Blues 3, Pens 2 (OT)
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<p>A friendly reminder to the Pittsburgh Penguins and Sidney Crosby: the St. Louis Blues are not the New York Islanders. The Blues won’t part the waters for Sid like the Isles tend to do, and they’re sure as heck not afraid of checking him and frustrating him into taking three penalties. The Blues sent a message to the Penguins and the rest of the league last night: we can defeat the top teams, we’re not scared of the top teams, and we’re sure as hell not scared of your superstars.</p>
<p>The game looked like it was going to be a tight one, with only one goal heading through the first two periods – a slapshot from Scott Nichol that seemed to be redirected a bit off of T.J. Oshie’s shoulder wizzed past Marc Andre Fleury. The second period nearly saw the Blues hop to a 2-0 lead, but David Backes’ goal that squeaked between Fleury’s pad and the goalpoast was correctly disallowed due to a kicking motion.</p>
<p>The Blues of the past would have let that been a sign that they just weren’t meant to win, or maybe they would have taken Steve Sullivan’s tying power play goal as a sign of that. This team, well, they fought back. Jamie Langenbrunner flicked a Christ Stewart shot past Fleury, who was having issues keeping track of the puck and the multitude of players surrounding him at once.</p>
<p>The Penguins forced overtime with about six minutes to go via James Neal, but the Blues still didn’t cower, roaring back in overtime and winning on a goal from Alex Pietrangelo. Apparently Pittsburgh missed the memo that Petro’s one of the best offensive defensemen in the league, because his game winner was very un-defenseman like. Petro was lurking about the front of the net when he received a pass from Vladimir Sobotka and faked out Fleury, flipping it into a wide open net in the last minute of overtime.</p>
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<p>With last night’s win, the Blues now have 24 points on the season, are 11-8-2, and are back in 8th place in the Western Conference – and within three points of the division leading Chicago Blackhawks.</p>
https://stlouis.sbnation.com/st-louis-blues/2011/11/24/2584774/st-louis-blues-at-pittsburgh-penguins-final-score-blues-3-pens-2-otLaura Astorian2011-11-23T13:29:40-06:002011-11-23T13:29:40-06:00St. Louis Blues At Pittsburgh Penguins: Chris Stewart Returns To Shut Down Sidney Crosby
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<p>Sidney Crosby's back, and the Blues are the second team to face him. Can they put a damper on his triumphant return?</p> <p>You might've heard about some guy returning to a lineup somewhere. Maaaaybe you caught the game on Versus Monday night. Anyway, it's not like there were approximately a million news stories on <span>Sidney Crosby's</span> return, so I'll assume you missed it and I'll recap: Crosby owned the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.lighthousehockey.com/">Islanders</a>. Actually, Crosby always owns the Isles. Perhaps his masterful two goal and two assist return wouldn't've been possible against another team - say, one with a goaltender instead of a traffic cone in net. Perhaps that the emotions were so high in the Consol Energy Center that night that no team had a hope to contain him. Whatever the reason, the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.stlouisgametime.com/">Blues</a>'re lucky Crosby and the Pens got that out of their system Monday. The atmosphere in Pittsburgh won't be as charged tonight, but the Blues're still going to have to fight for a win.</p>
<p>Crosby might never have scored a goal on the Blues, but the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.pensburgh.com/">Penguins</a> are still tough competition. They've lost just one game in the last three, which was a 1-0 overtime loss in St. Louis last season. The Blues let five goals go up against them the last time they were in Pittsburgh, and they've lost four road games in a row. They have, though, lost only one game in regulation with Ken Hitchcock behind the bench, and the three goals allowed last night were the most that they've allowed in a game yet. Adding a bit more oomph to the defense is the fact that <span>Brian Elliott</span> is the likely starter tonight. Elliott is on a three game win streak in which he's only allowed three goals, and he leads the league in GAA with a teeny 1.43. </p>
<p>Also helping the Blues out is the return of <span>Chris Stewart</span>. <a href="http://stlouis.sbnation.com/st-louis-blues/2011/11/16/2567277/blues-chris-stewart-suspended-for-three-games-for-hit-on-niklas" target="_blank">He was suspended three games for a check from behind on Niklas Kronwall</a>, and tonight is his first night back. Stewart's off to an extremely slow start this season, with just three goals and two assists so far. His physicality, though, will be a boost against an also physical Penguins team.</p>
<p>The Pens have just two more wins on the season than the Blues do, yet sit atop the Eastern Conference standings. They're an outstanding team who're well coached, and who will have Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, and Jordan Stall in the line-up tonight. The Blues' penalty killing needs to be top notch tonight, because those three players are experts at exploiting defensive lapses. In all actuality, discipline would do the Blues a world of good. To win, a team needs to limit as many chances as they give the Penguins as possible. Just neutralizing one player isn't going to work, because the entire team is excellent.</p>
https://stlouis.sbnation.com/2011/11/23/2583259/st-louis-blues-at-pittsburgh-penguins-chris-stewart-returns-to-shutLaura Astorian