Season series: Justin Abdelkader and Pavel Datsyuk scored overtime goals for the Detroit Red Wings, who defeated the St. Louis Blues twice last season. Kyle Quincey had two assists for the Red Wings; Alexander Steen scored twice for the Blues.
Red Wings team scope: Detroit will start Jimmy Howard in goal after Petr Mrazek made 35 saves in a 3-2 home victory against the Los Angeles Kings on Friday. It's the first time in eight games the Red Wings scored three or more goals on home ice. Rookie Dylan Larkin had the game-winner and tied Gustav Nyquist for the team lead in goals with seven. Defenseman Mike Green scored his first goal with the Red Wings after signing as a free agent during the summer; Tomas Tatar also scored for the Red Wings, who have won three straight games against St. Louis. Abdelkader and Henrik Zetterberg each had two assists against the Kings.
Blues team scope: St. Louis will get a better idea at the morning skate as to whom will be available to play, including defenseman Colton Parayko. The rookie has missed the past two games with a lower-body injury. Parayko and a number of regular skaters didn't participate in an optional skate Friday. Goalie Jake Allen will get the start. "We kept a lot of guys off the ice [Friday] on purpose by design," coach Ken Hitchcock said after practice. "I don't know what our roster's going to be [Saturday], and I don't think the players know until we come to the rink. If there was a game [Friday], there were a lot of guys that wouldn't have been able to play, but we'll get it propped up and get it going [Saturday]. Right now, everybody's potentially available." Center Paul Stastny continues to recover from a broken foot; he participated in the optional practice but is not ready to return. Stastny has missed 15 games.
Jake Allen has given St. Louis plenty of solid performances in net this season, but few have been as impressive as his last that helped the Blues snap out of their funk.
St. Louis now looks to take both games on its brief homestand when it hosts the Detroit Red Wings.
Allen has a 1.91 goals-against average and three shutouts in 13 starts and one relief appearance after making 32 saves in Thursday's 3-2 shootout win over Buffalo. After helping the Blues (13-6-1) snuff out a pair of 5-on-3 chances for the Sabres, he stopped all three attempts in the shootout.
"Your best penalty killer is your goalie and again he made some big saves," said Alexander Steen, who scored the only goal in the shootout.
St. Louis had dropped three of its previous four before getting power-play goals from Kevin Shattenkirk and Vladimir Tarasenko. It also has killed off all 13 penalties over its last three.
''It was special teams and goaltender that won the game for us,'' coach Ken Hitchcock said. ''Penalty killing was outstanding. Power play, we scored early in the 5-minute power play ... and then had a great power-play goal in the second period. The guys that killed penalties, especially those guys that were out there on the 5-on-3, did an outstanding job.''
The Blues improved to 6-2-1 at Scottrade Center and look to win a third straight there before heading on the road to face Buffalo and Pittsburgh.
This will be the only one on the road during a nine-game stretch for the Red Wings (10-8-2), who beat Los Angeles 3-2 on Friday.
Rookie Dylan Larkin scored for the third consecutive contest, but he briefly went to the locker room in the third period after his knee buckled during a non-contact play. He returned, much to the delight of coach Jeff Blashill.
Larkin has seven goals and seven assists, ranking second behind Henrik Zetterberg for the team lead in points.
''I didn't get a good look at what he did, but I know he had some kind of lower-body issue,'' Blashill said. ''I haven't talked to him, but he finished the game, so I don't expect it was anything serious.''
Mike Green and Tomas Tatar also scored, and Zetterberg added two assists. Detroit also had Brad Richards back in the lineup after he missed 13 games with a back injury, and defenseman Brendan Smith returned after sitting out five with an illness.
''We knew we needed to attack the net and create some chances,'' Tatar said. ''That's the only way we've been getting anything to go in.''
The Red Wings will use that same strategy as they try to win a fourth straight meeting with the Blues. Justin Abdelkader scored on Allen in overtime for a 2-1 victory in the last matchup March 22.
Steen scored the lone goal for St. Louis as Jimmy Howard made 23 saves to end a personal three-game losing streak to the Blues.
Howard will be in net for this meeting as well after Petr Mrazek made 35 saves against the Kings, though he has just a .905 save percentage in his last seven starts.
Zetterberg has just one assist in his last five against the Blues.
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De-troit sucks! Having really become a Blues fan in the early 90s, the Wings are still one of my most hated teams, even if we don't see them much anymore.
Great! Datsyuk comes back from injury the week before the Wings play the Blues and rounds into form over that week. Shut down that guy and his line (with the kid Dylan Larkin) and the Blues should beat them.
Datsyuk scored
Larkin scored
Blues lost...
not surprising when the opponents top guys are scoring and there aren't that many of them to stop.
Last edited by theohall on Sun Nov 22, 2015 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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The Blues made the mistake of trying to clear the puck without being enough alone to hit it hard. They had 2 men around the puck, they should have tried to smother the puck against the wall with only about 16 seconds left. They might have, at least gotten a freeze and a faceoff with only a handful of seconds left. The Wings had way too much time in The Blues' zone, and too many shots.
Getting one point out of a game they played absolutely TERRIBLY is a lot better than it could have been. They had almost nothing tonight. The Blues should be able to get a win in Buffalo, but I hope Stastny is back within a week.
Pääjärvi had the absolute best chance to win the game, but he is so poor at shooting that he didn't get close toscoring. Someone needs to work with him on his shot, and how to deke, and how to look the goalie off, how to make a double move, how not to telegraph his shots, how to lift the puck, etc. ad infinitum. If he could just be a slightly-below average shooter, he could be a very effective player, especially in OT.
Krigloch the Furious wrote:Man they looked bad. Real bad.
So many stupid red wing fans everywhere. Ugh!
Blues looked like they played lastnight, not the Redwings
Sent from my R2 unit.
Blues had no transition game in this one. Lots of bad passes, and the defense was fairly bad. Granted, we got the consolation point, but I hate giving Detroit 2 points.
