The St. Louis Blues are not a fancy team. To stay in the Western Conference playoff chase, they will need to grind out victories.
That’s what they did during a 3-1 victory over the Ducks at Anaheim on Sunday — and that will be their goal Wednesday as they cap a four-game Western trip by facing the Arizona Coyotes in Tempe, Ariz.
The Blues took 5-1 losses to the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings to start their excursion. Then they regained their necessary identity against the Ducks.
“When we’re forechecking like we did today and we’re connected, winning a lot of puck battles and getting a lot of pucks back, I feel like that’s how we’ve been creating some really good scoring chances,” Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist said. “That hasn’t been the last two games. It was back today, so we need to keep working on that, and staying on that forecheck game.”
Jake Neighbours has goals in consecutive games. He and winger Alexey Toropchenko, who has three goals in his last eight games, have helped set a more aggressive tempo for the Blues in their checking line roles.
“We’re not a team that’s going to win hockey games if we’re not outworking the opponent,” Neighbours said. “We’re at our best when we’re skating, we’re forechecking, backchecking, applying pressure. I thought we were all over them.”
This was a contrast from the night before, when the Blues fell behind the Kings 4-0 in the first period.
“We’re talking every day about it that we need to work hard right from the start and a full 60 minutes, no rest nowhere, maybe just on the bench a little bit,” Toropchenko said. “But on the ice, you need to give 100 percent. That’s what we’re doing right now.”
The Coyotes are 1-2-1 in their last four games. Like the Blues, they had their hands full against the Kings.
They outshot Los Angeles 31-25 overall Monday but went 0-for-6 on the power play during a 4-1 loss that snapped goaltender Connor Ingram’s five-game winning streak.
“We had our looks, but obviously you don’t want to try to come from behind (with) a team like that,” Coyotes defenseman Sean Durzi said. “That’s a team that’s going to make you pay for your mistakes.”
Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny liked how his team played during the first two periods before the Kings clamped down.
“We had the puck. That’s the best defense,” Tourigny said. “We had the puck a lot. We applied a lot of pressure. We did a lot of good things. I think we played solid defensively. Offensively we generated a lot of chances, (but) we just did not bury them.
“There’s not much I can say about our performance. It’s just one of those nights where we could not find a way to get it past the goalie.”
Coyotes winger Lawson Crouse scored Monday, giving him eight goals in 10 games this month. In his last four games, he has scored three times and put 17 shots on goal.
The teams split their first two games in St. Louis this season, with the Coyotes winning 6-2 on Oct. 19 and the Blues prevailing 2-1 on Nov. 9.
–Field Level Media
