Well, if you are in the NHL’s Western Conference, time to wake up. The St Louis Blues from late last season are back in business and hitting the blue note with grace.
On Friday night, the Blues handed the host Stars a 5-1 loss to stay hot.
Jake Allen made 18 saves for the win.
“The way the guys in front of me and [Binnington] have played the last four games has been pretty remarkable,” Allen said. “Scoring chances created, back-checking and blocked shots. It’s great to see.”
Five different skaters struck the right chords for the Blues as they built a 5-0 lead before the Stars broke through to spoil the shutout bid..
Colton Parayko had a goal and three points on the night.
“Obviously these are big games, these are the fun ones,” Parayko said. “We knew what was at stake here. It was a big game. They came into our building and beat us [3-2 in overtime Feb. 8], so we wanted to make sure we got off to a good start and gave ourselves a good chance to win.”
Alexander Steen and David Perron started the offense for a 2-0 lead.
“It was a good win,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “We knew what was on the line.”
Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Kyrou also struck for single markers.
“We’ve been playing really good hockey in the last five or six games,” Kyrou said.
Jamie Oleksiak scored the lipstick goal for the Stars late in the third period.
“We’re a lot better of a team than we showed tonight, and we know that,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said. “We had a bad night and it’s the whole room. We’re not going to point our fingers at one or two guys. It’s the whole room and the coaches.”
[WATCH: All Blues vs. Stars highlights]
Ben Bishop got the start, but was given the hook early in the middle frame after making nine saves and surrendering four goals.
“I think it’s a good learning point that we have work to do,” Dallas’ Jamie Benn said. “There’s a lot of areas of our game that we need to keep getting better at. They’re the best. Right now, we’re not as good as them, so we have work to do.”
Anton Khudobin made nine saves of his own in the mop up role.
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