– Photo By Ryan Leopando / Arch City Sports
The St Louis Blues traveled to Ottawa to take on the Senators for the third of a four game road trip. Thus far, the road trip has been sour for St Louis. The Blues lost Tuesday at Boston, then followed that up by getting dominated in Montreal Thursday. Ken Hitchcock would rely on Brian Elliott to get the Blues back on the winning track.
Maxim LaPierre got the Blues on the board early with a highlight reel backhand goal. That would be LaPierre’s first goal of the season. The lead wouldn’t last long as a David Backes hooking minor gave the Senators a power play. Mika Zibanejad scored on a rebound to tie things at one.
30 seconds after the Zibanejad goal, the “STL Line” got busy. Jori Lehtera had the puck in the corner and dished to Vladimir Tarasenko in the slot. Tarasenko buried a wrist shot by Robin Lehner to give St Louis a 2-1 lead. Jaden Schwartz and Jori Lehtera would be credited with assists.
There was a bit of a scare for Blues fans. With just over one minute to go in the first, Eric Gryba drove his elbow into the head of Vladimir Tarasenko. Vlad’s head banged off of the glass pretty hard. Tarasenko would be alright. No penalty was called on the play.
At the 12:45 mark in the second frame, Alex Steen put the Blues up 3-1 with a wrist shot. Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester picked up assists on Steen’s fourth goal of the season.
The two goal lead would be trimmed in half as Senator’s Captain Erik Karlsson scored Ottawa’s second power play goal of the game. The Blues would carry a 3-2 lead into the third period.
The third period saw no offense, thanks in large part to the St Louis defense. The Senators only tallied five shots in the third period. The Blues outshot Ottawa 33-26 in the 3-2 victory.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored his 12th goal of the season. The Blues’ three goals all came at even strength. On the flip-side, Ottawa’s two goals both came on the power play.
The loss drops the Senators to 9-6-4. The Blues improve to 13-6-1 with the victory. St Louis wraps up the road trip Sunday when they take on the Winnipeg Jets. Puck drops at 3:30 PM CST and can be seen on FS-MW or heard on KMOX 1120.
