– Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images
The St. Louis Blues defeated the Dallas Stars 7-5 on the road thanks to a combined five goals from Jaden Schwartz and Patrik Berglund.
For Berglund, this is his third multi-point game in the past four games. This game also marked Schwartz’s second hat trick of the season. Offensively, St. Louis had seven different players with two points or more.
After the victory, the Blues are tied with Nashville with 103 points and a record of 48-23-7 while Chicago trails by just two points.
The offense came early and often as the Blues got out to the early lead. Berglund sent an indirect pass across the zone to Zbynek Michalek who fired a shot on net. Berglund circled to the high slot and tipped the puck past Kari Lehtonen for his 12th goal of the season giving the Blues the early one-goal lead with under three minutes remaining in the first period.
Late in the first, Michalek dove and took down Travis Moen as Moen was in on a break away. The referees on the ice signaled for a penalty shot as Moen took his first penalty shot of his NHL career. Moen skated in on Elliott wide to Elliott’s left and then moved across the net and lifted a shot past Elliott’s right pad tying the game with just 11 seconds left in the period.
In the second period, St. Louis wasted little time to regain the lead. Dmitrij Jaskin picked up the puck and took a shot that was blocked away before it got on net. The puck trickled to the point where Kevin Shattenkirk corralled the puck and fired a shot from the point. Again, it was Patrik Berglund in front for the tip, giving St. Louis a one-goal lead just 15 seconds into the period.
The goals didn’t stop there for the Blues as Schwartz netted his first of the game. T.J. Oshie entered the zone in a close two-on-one play before saucering a pass over Alex Goligoski’s stick to Schwartz who scored making it 3-1 Blues just 32 seconds into the game.
Dallas’s head coach Lindy Ruff called a time out after the goal to settle his team.
Whatever Ruff said seemed to work as Dallas struck back just six seconds later. Off the center-ice face off, Tyler Seguin outmatched Jay Bouwmeester for the puck before giving it to Jamie Benn. Benn.
Dallas went on to net three more goals including Benn’s second of the game and Seguin’s team-leading 36th of the season in the second period, making it four unanswered giving Dallas a 5-3 lead.
Then it was Ken Hitchcock’s turn to call a time out to settle his team and get back on track.
Both coaches seemed to make good use of their timeouts as St. Louis was able to cut the lead to one late in the second period. Alex Pietrangelo entered the attacking zone with under a minute remaining in the period. Pietrangelo dropped the puck back to Schwartz at the blue line who deked past Jason Spezza and two Dallas defenders before sending a wrist shot off the post and into the net for his 27th goal of the season.
St. Louis kept the pressure on in the second period as Michalek netted his first multi-point game as a member of the St. Louis Blues. On a 4-on-4, Michalek carried the puck to the end line and sent a centering feed looking for Jori Lehtera, the puck deflecting in to tie the game as Michalek got credit for the goal.
The goals didn’t stop there as Pietrangelo got his second point of the night with a goal as the power play expired. Pietrangelo picked up the puck off a blocked shot and spun before sending a wrist shot past Lehtonen giving the Blues a one-goal lead with just over 10 minutes remaining in regulation.
Ruff pulled Lehtonen after the goal and sent in Enroth, but it would not matter as Schwartz scored an empty netter late in the game capping off his hat trick and capping of the Blues’ victory.
St. Louis looks to win three straight Sunday, Apr. 5 on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks. Puck drop is at 6:30 p.m.
