As I mentioned in the game preview, the Blues have trouble with Mikka Kiprusoff and the Calgary Flames. Luckily, the Blues didn’t have to worry about half of that, as the Flames decided to start back-up Henrik Karlsson instead of their star starter. It worked out about as well for the Flames as one would imagine.
The Blues took their time getting their rhythm, allowing Calgary’s Curtis Glencross to score the first goal eight minutes into the first period. That woke the team up, with Alex Steen corralling a Jason Arnott rebound and snapping it past a sprawling Karlsson into a wide-open goal ten minutes later.
Kevin Shattenkirk and Alex Pietrangelo decided to end speculation about a potential “sophomore slump.” Both were a combined +5 on the evening, with Pietrangelo leading the team in time on ice (23:09) for the second game in a row. Shattenkirk started the second period scoring for the Blues taking a cross-ice pass from Jamie Langenbrunner. 3:39 into the period. Pieterangelo, not to be outdone, scored 12 minutes later. A minute and a half after that, Calgary captain Jerome Iginla decided to stop the Blues’ rally and netted a powerplay goal on a Nikita Nikitin tripping penalty.
The Blues re-grouped a bit and continued dominating the play in the third period. Chris Stewart scored his first goal of the season in true power-forward fashion, barreling down on Karlsson and flipping the puck past him. Jason Arnott scored his second goal and his third point in two games firing the puck past Karlsson with a little over five minutes to go in the period.
The game was played much more smartly today and the level of focus was significantly higher. The powerplay, though, was zero for five, continuing concerns that fans had from a season past. For a team with this much offensive firepower when clicking, going 1-for-10 on the PP is odd. Hopefully that will be addressed as the season progresses. The Blues’ defense was excellent, though, allowing only seventeen shots on goal throughout the whole game, and blocking eighteen Calgary shots.
The next game is on the road, Thursday night in Dallas with a 7:30 puck drop.