|
 Alexander Steen scored his league-leading 15th and 16th goals and
the slumping power play woke up with three goals in a 7-3 win over
the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.
St. Louis has won seven of nine and is off to the fastest start in
franchise history with 12 wins in its first 17 games.
Colorado lost back-to-back contests for the first time this season.
Backes, Derek Roy, Vladimir Tarasenko, Chris Stewart and Jay
Bouwmeester also scored for the Blues, who have won their last five
home meetings with the Avalanche.
T.J. Oshie added four assists for the first four-point game of his
career.
The Blues were 3 for 4 on the power play, breaking out of a 1-for-15
skid that spanned the previous five-plus games. Roy, Backes and
Stewart scored on the power play. Oshie had two power play assists.
"We simplified and started shooting the puck," Backes said. "We got
a few ugly ones in front to start it off. From that, we hopefully
learned our lesson that scoring one out of 20 that are pretty isn't
worth it, when we can score a couple a game if we just do things the
hard way and shoot the puck."
The three man-advantage goals are a season-high for the Blues.
"A lot of it has to do with how much we were shooting the puck,"
Oshie said. "We were getting to the right spots and getting some
bounces. The last couple of games, I don't think we were getting
those bounces.
"Tonight we were shooting and we found the net."
Steen, who pushed the lead to 3-1 with his first goal at 7:16 of the
second period, has a point in 12 successive games, a career high. He
took a slash in the third period and was not available after the
game, though St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said Steen was fine.
St. Louis goalie Jaroslav Halak improved to 10-2-2.
The Blues had just one power play goal in their previous five games.
"We've had a lot of good looks on the power play, but tonight, we
were rewarded for our looks," Hitchcock said. "I thought the Backes
unit showed great continuity. It looked like they were threat every
time."
[to top of second column] |
Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly
scored for Colorado, which lost 2-1 at Carolina on Tuesday.
Avalanche goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere lost for the first time
this season after winning his first five starts. He was pulled
in the second period after allowing three goals on 14 shots, but
re-entered at the start of the third. Giguere, who gave up five
goals on 165 shots in his first five games, was looking to
become the first Colorado goalie to begin the season 6-0. He
finished giving up five goals on 23 shots.
The Blues scored four times over 11:50 in the second period to
break open a 1-1 game.
"It feels good to be playing the right way and get a win against
a good team," Oshie said.
Backes put his team ahead to stay 2-1 with a power play goal
2:49 in the second period. He jumped on a rebound at the side of
the net off a shot from Roy.
Roy, who added two assists, got the St. Louis attack started
with a power play goal just 1:54 into the game. It was the first
man-advantage goal given up by Colorado on the road this season.
The Avalanche were 20 for 20 on kills over their first seven
road games.
Colorado appeared frustrated after the four-goal blitz, taking
three fighting majors in the final 3:14 of the second period.
Three Colorado players were given 10-minute misconducts in the
third period.
"They scored on three power plays and that was the story,"
Colorado coach Patrick Roy said. "I think it's a good learning
process for us."
The Blues have scored first in their last nine games.
NOTES: The Blues signed D Carlo Colaiacovo to a one year
free-agent contract. He was not in uniform on Thursday. ... The
Avalanche had given up two goals or less in nine of their
previous 10 games. ... The Blues had 10 shots or more in their
last eight periods. ... The game featured three fights in the
second period after the Blues took control.
[Associated
Press; STEVE OVERBEY]
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
