Oh baby. The Blues are bruised, but that isn’t a viable excuse anymore. With 5 defensemen, the St. Louis Blues beat Detroit 2-1 for their third consecutive victory.
Brian Elliott shutout the Red Wings last time he played in Detroit, and he almost did it again.
As you may have expected, the Wednesday Night Rivalry game was going to be a little chippy. You could have also expected Pierre McGuire to mispronounce several names during the broadcast. Either way, you got what you expected.
After a grinding 18:00 minutes of play, the Blues struck first. Alex Pietrangelo (Pierre still can’t pronounce his name) took a shot from the point. The shot deflected off one of Ty Rattie’s limbs and past the Wings’ goaltender, Petr Mrazek.
Rattie’s goal was his third of the season, but all three goals came during the last four games. However, two of the goals were unintentional tip-ins while the other was a wide-open net. He is raking in points though, which is exactly what the Blues need from the kid.
Neither team scored in the second as they tallied 9 shots per club.
In the third, David Backes passed the puck to Dmitrij Jaskin—who was heading up-ice with speed. Jaskin carried it into the zone, deked one defender, warded himself around another, then stuffed the puck past Mrazek. One could’ve mistaken him for Tarasenko.
Jaskin, too, has only three goals this season. Unlike Rattie, he has been playing the whole season. Ken Hitchcock put Jaskin on the healthy scratch list in the two previous games, but that goal might make a spot in the lineup for him on Friday.
With less than four minutes remaining in regulation, Alexander Steen was penalized for elbowing Alexey Marchenko. The Wing’s pulled their goalie and capitalized on the power play as Henrik Zetterberg grabbed his eighth of the year to make it 2-1.
However, the hit was clean as a whistle. Steen’s elbow did not make contact with Marchenko. Instead, he delivered a deadly reverse hit that T.J. Oshie—the king of reverse hits—would have been proud of.
Despite the Wing’s late goal, the Blues (Elliott) held the lead as they won their third in-a-row. They play the Avalanche on Friday at 8:00 p.m.
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
