Elliott notches fifth shutout
Something special is beginning to form at 14th and Clark Streets in front of Scottrade Center. The
St. Louis Blues are making it known that they will be a prominent player in the
NHL this season. Their numbers at the midway point can't be argued.
After
a dominating 4-0 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night, the
Blues are 24-12-5 at the midpoint of the season and own first place in the
Central Division this late in the season for the first time since January 2001.
They've also climbed into second place in the Western Conference, two points
behind the Vancouver Canucks.
The
consensus response: Nobody's content.
It's
a remarkable story considering the Blues were the first team in the League to
make a coaching change -- they were 13 games into the season and were in 14th
place in the conference.
"Been here, done that," said coach Ken
Hitchcock, who is 18-5-5 since taking over for Davis Payne on Nov. 6. "I know what's out there. Some big
storms ahead."
Added
forward T.J. Oshie, who assisted on
two goals: "They said it there
(about first place) at the end. I didn't even think about it. It feels good but
a long way to go."
This
is the attitude of a team craving success -- one that's been to the playoffs
just once since 2005-06.
"That only lasts so long in the Western Conference
unless you continue to play well and get points every night," captain David
Backes said. "That's our
goal."
The
Blues were catching a red-hot Avalanche (23-19-1) on back-to-back nights --
Colorado won 4-0 in Chicago on Friday -- so the best advice going in was to
jump on a road-weary team early. Mission accomplished, as the Blues blitzed
Colorado with their own avalanche -- something the Avs had been doing to their
opponents.
Kevin Shattenkirk scored a goal and assisted on another, Oshie, Alex Pietrangelo and Vladimir Sobotka chipped in two assists
each as the Blues cooled off the Avs, who were 9-1-0 in their last 10.
"The big difference tonight was it wasn't one or two
lines, it wasn't three lines," Oshie
said. "It was all four lines. We
were rolling them over."
Patrik Berglund, David Backes and Jason
Arnott scored for the Blues. Brian
Elliott had a light night in goal, stopping 15 shots for his fifth shutout
of the season and 14th of his career as the Blues won their NHL-best 17th home
game. They're now 17-3-2 at the friendly confines of Scottrade Center and 9-0-1
in their last 10 at home.
Hitchcock
said for the team to continue to move forward, they have to improve on a 7-9-3
road mark.
"We are playing well at home. We want to continue
that," Hitchcock said, "but we have to have a better record on
the road. We’ve played very well on the road. We haven’t seen it come out in
wins. we have to start to see that is we want to be the top team at the end of
the day. You have to be .500 or better on the road if you want to be a top
team. We’ve got to start seeing reward for the good play."
The
Blues improved to 19-0-0 on the season scoring three goals or more and are
18-1-1 when holding a lead after two periods.
Colorado
(23-19-1) came in winners of 10 of its last 12 and 13 of 18 to climb back into
the Western Conference playoff chase. The Avs were blanked for the fifth time
this season and ran into a buzz saw. Former Blues defenseman Erik Johnson, part of last season's big
trade with Colorado, left the game in the first period with a reported hand
injury and did not return.
"The team’s been playing well and they play with a
lot of energy and they play a north-south game and they play physical so
they’ve obviously done a good job there," Avs coach Joe
Sacco said of the Blues.
Added
goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who
stopped 35 shots: "You’ve got to
give them credit for what they’re doing right now and we’ve got to take a page
from their book right now."
Berglund
opened the scoring as Matt D'Agostini's
backcheck forced a Kyle Quincey
turnover in the Avs' zone. D'Agostini fed Oshie in the slot, and Oshie ripped a
one-timer that caught a piece of Berglund and past Giguere 3:20 into the game.
Shattenkirk,
who was part of the blockbuster trade last February, notched his fifth point in
five games against his former team when his shot from the right point through
traffic snuck past Giguere inside the near post at 12:21, just as a Colorado
penalty expired, for a 2-0 lead.
Shattenkirk
couldn’t hide his pleasure at once again biting the hand that once fed him.
"There’s a little something extra there every
game," Shattenkirk said. "There’s obviously a point you want to
prove. I think Chris (Stewart) will tell you the same thing.
"You really want to play well and show them that
things are going great here in St. Louis and we’re happy to be a part of
it."
The
Blues continued their onslaught in the second period, as Arnott and Backes
buried power-play goals.
Arnott
was on the receiving end of Shattenkirk's hard rush into the Colorado zone and
was able to wire a shot from the high slot just under the crossbar 1:20 into
the period for a 3-0 lead. Backes then collected Pietrangelo's shot from the
point on another power play and hammered it into an empty side at 9:58 for a
4-0 lead, as the Blues were outshooting the overwhelmed Avalanche 28-9 through
two periods.
The
Blues' power play, which came in 24th in the NHL after scoring twice on
Tuesday, is now five for its last 13.
"We caught a team on back-to-back and I thought we
took full advantage of it," Hitchcock
said. "I thought we had a lot of
good players. I thought out transition game was as good as it’s been. Our power
play, we’ve simplified it here in the last month and it’s really been
effective. Hopefully, we can continue down that path and play as well on the
road as we have at home."
-by
Louie Korac for NHL.com-
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
08/01/2012 - 09:14
