In Glendale Saturday, Jake Allen made 31 saves to help the St Louis Blues to a 3-0 win over the Coyotes.
“We’re playing with confidence, but we don’t have a choice,” Allensaid. “In previous years, we were already at 100 points and in the playoffs. Now everything is up in the air
Alex Pietrangelo scored once in win over Arizona Saturday – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
and we have to win.”
The win pushed the Blues into third place in the Central Division.
Alex Pietrangelo Scottie Upshall and David Perron struck for goals for St Louis as the Blues improved to 38-28-5.
“I just liked the way we looked tonight. We’re stepping up to the occasion and guys are pulling their weight,” Upshall said. “The contributions are all though the lineup, we’re getting great leadership, great goaltending. When it comes together at this time of the year, it gets pretty exciting.”
St Louis has benefitted from the change in bench bosses in early February. Mike Yeo is 14-7-0 as head coach and the Blues have five shutouts in that span.
“We got the shutout tonight, but [Allen] had to be outstanding to get it,” Yeo said referring to a less than stellar effort from his defense.
WATCH: All Blues vs. Coyotes highlights
Mike Smith made 38 saves in taking the loss as the Coyotes had five-game point streak snapped.
“We’re not doing enough to make it hard on the other goalie. It was a pretty easy night for him … he saw most of the shots,” Smith said. “We didn’t do enough things in front of the net to make [Allen] have to battle through.”
A slow start doomed the Coyotes who lost a defenseman to a penalty and game misconduct and were outshot 16-3.
“[Smith] was excellent. We were so poor in the first period, it was maddening the say the least. We have to compete harder. Not enough guys were engaged. When you don’t do that, the whole game is just whizzing by you,” Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett said.
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