The St. Louis Blues went into their holiday break on a high note by rallying for a 7-5 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.
They scored five unanswered goals to erase a 5-2 third-period deficit and improve to 4-1 under interim coach Drew Bannister. The Blues will try to extend that upturn Wednesday when they host the Dallas Stars.
“We’re feeling good about ourselves going into the break,” Bannister said. “That group in there has been through a tough time in the last week to 10 days with everything that’s gone on. They’ve found a way to dig in and play some really good hockey. They’ve willed their way to a 4-1 record.”
Maintaining momentum won’t be easy. The next eight Blues games mostly will be played against potential Stanley Cup contenders.
The biggest change Bannister made after replacing Craig Berube as coach was to reunite wingers Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich with center Robert Thomas on the top forward line.
Kyrou has four goals and four assists in the five games since the change. Thomas has three goals and seven assists and Buchnevich has three goals and four assists.
The Blues have scored four power-play goals in their last four games after scoring just seven times with the man advantage during their first 29 games.
St. Louis opened its season with a 2-1 shootout road loss to the Stars on Oct. 12. They evened this Central Division season series with a 4-3 overtime victory over Dallas on Dec. 16.
Kyrou had a goal and two assists in the latter game and Thomas had two assists.
The Stars have won three straight games and earned at least a point in six straight games (5-0-1). Their 20-8-4 record is tied for the fourth-best record after 32 games in franchise history.
They went into the break with a dramatic 3-2 road victory over the Nashville Predators. They scored twice in the final 15 seconds to steal that game.
“We didn’t have our best tonight for the first 40 minutes, but we found a way to get it done,” Dallas forward Matt Duchene said. “I thought in the third period we were the better team. We kind of turned the game. (Juuse Saros) is such a good goalie, you need some decent bounces to get it. Luckily we got one there to tie it up.”
Stars coach Peter DeBoer scrambled his lines in that game, breaking up the top line of Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski flanking Roope Hintz. Robertson joined Tyler Seguin and Duchene, Pavelski moved onto a line with Jamie Benn and Wyatt Johnston and Hintz centered Mason Marchment and Evgenii Dadonov.
DeBoer can mix and match lines because Dallas features a balanced offensive attack with nine players on pace to score 20 or more goals.
Scott Wedgewood (9-1-2, 3.08 goals-against average) has made five consecutive starts in goal in place of the injured Jake Oettinger.
–Field Level Media
