The Blues just seem to keep steamrolling teams at home. Even when it’s a division leader like the San Jose Sharks, the Blues find new ways to win and to outwork the opposition. Tonight it was the exploitation of Sharks’ mistakes that helped the Blues to their 3-0 victory.
The penalty kill had to be busy in the third period, with the Blues giving the Sharks three power plays — two from T.J. Oshie around three minutes apart. Luckily the Blues and Jaroslav Halak were on tonight, able to stop everything that the Sharks threw at them in their last-ditch attempt at wresting victory from the jaws of defeat before Alex Pietrangelo’s empty net goal iced it for the Blues.
Even with three power plays that period, the Sharks managed only 7 shots on net. Total for the game they had 25, all of which Halak turned aside for his now league leading 6th shutout. Looking at the NHL stat leaders page on the goaltending side is like looking at the Blues’ roster page. Halak is leading the league in shutouts (Elliott has five) and is 4th in the league with a 1.97 GAA. Brian Elliott is tied for the league lead in save percentage with Henrik Lundqvist and leads the league in GAA handily with a 1.63.
Tuesday night the Blues travel to Columbus to take on the floundering Blue Jackets. The Jackets just dropped their Sunday evening game against the LA Kings 5-3, and could be just the opponent that the Blues need to keep on climbing up the standings.