The Minnesota Wild cruised in their final tuneup before the playoffs, getting 24 saves from Niklas Backstrom in a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.
Wyatt Smith had two goals, and Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Branko Radivojevic and Wes Walz also scored for the Wild, who will meet Anaheim in the first round of the playoffs next week.
Backstrom was coming off consecutive shutouts of Edmonton, but the Blues broke Minnesota's franchise-record scoreless streak at 169 minutes, 20 seconds when Peter Sejna beat the Finnish goalie between the pads with a shallow angle shot in the second period.
Walz came right back on a breakaway, taking a pretty backhand feed from Marian Gaborik and deking Curtis Sanford for a 3-1 lead.
The Blues end the season with a record of 34-35-13, with a total of 81 points and finishing in 10th in the Western Conference standings.
David Legwand scored two goals, Paul Kariya notched his 500th NHL assist, and the Nashville Predators snapped a three-game skid Thursday night by beating the St. Louis Blues 4-1.
Nashville set franchise records with its 50th victory and 108 points. But the Predators had to wait and see how Detroit (110 points) fared against Chicago to know whether they had any hope of winning the Central Division.
Nashville wraps up its regular season Saturday night at Colorado, while Detroit hosts Chicago.
The Predators had been struggling with a three-game home skid that was the longest this season and in danger of losing a fourth consecutive game for the first time this season. They finally fixed some problems against St. Louis, beating the Blues for the 15th time in 16 games.
Rookie Alexander Radulov and Peter Forsberg also had goals for Nashville, which scored twice on the power play in its final home game of the regular season.
Christian Backman scored the only goal for St. Louis, which had won three of four.
The Note will play the final game of their regular season in Minnesota when they take on the Wild Saturday night. The game starts at 7:05 PM ET.
Doug Weight and Petr Cajanek had a goal and an assist and the St. Louis Blues beat the Phoenix Coyotes 5-2 Tuesday night.
D.J. King scored his first career goal, and Radek Dvorak and Barret Jackman also scored for the Blues, who have won three of their past four.
Daniel Carcillo and Jeremy Roenick scored for the Coyotes, who have lost 13 of their past 15 games.
Weight gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead 3:12 into the game when he pounced on a long rebound at the bottom of the right faceoff circle and fired the puck over goalie Curtis Joseph.
Cajanek was credited with a goal at 6:53 of the first period when his pass from the left wing was deflected into the net by Coyotes defenseman Zbynek Michalek.
Carcillo cut the Blues lead to 2-1 when he redirected Keith Ballard's shot from the point past Jason Bacashihua. Jackman fired a shot from the top of the right circle over Joseph's glove to put St. Louis ahead 3-1.
Dvorak made it 4-1 at 9:12 when he tucked a shot just under the crossbar. Roenick pulled the Coyotes within 4-2 at 14:25 on a redirection off a Shane Doan shot from the high slot, but King added his goal a little more than two minutes later from the bottom of the left circle.
The Blues will continue the road stand when they play the Nashville Predators Thursday night. The puck will drop at 7:00 PM ET.
Glen Metropolit and Doug Weight scored in a 17-second span in the second period to help the St. Louis Blues stop the Dallas Stars' four-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory on Monday night.
With the game tied at 1, Metropolit put the Blues in front with his 14th goal from the right circle at 13:44 after a turnover by Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas. Weight's deflection for his 15th of the season at 14:01 extended St. Louis' lead to 3-1.
Lee Stempniak scored two goals, including an empty-netter with 24 seconds left, and Curtis Sanford stopped 28 shots for the Blues, who won three of the four meetings this season.
The Bluenote will travel to Phoenix to take on the Coyotes Tuesday night. Gametime is 9:00 PM ET.
Andy McDonald swatted in a backhander 25 seconds into overtime for his second goal of the game, helping the Anaheim Ducks spoil the St. Louis Blues' home finale with a 3-2 victory Saturday night.
Scott Niedermayer had a goal and assisted on the winner for the Pacific Division leaders, who are in a race for the best overall record in the NHL with 106 points.
David Backes and Lee Stempniak scored for the Blues, who finished 18-20-3 at home in a rebuilding season after finishing last overall in 2005-06. The Blues finish with four games on the road, and the team got a standing ovation from a near-sellout crowd of 18,609 before leaving the ice.
McDonald has 26 goals for third-best on the team, but had been scoreless in his previous six games. On the winner, Niedermayer lofted a pass through the Blues' defense to the hard-charging McDonald, who poked it past Jason Bacashihua on the only shot for either team in the extra period.
The Blues Will end the season on the road, starting Monday night in Dallas to take on the Stars. The game starts at 7:00 PM ET.
Doug Weight had a goal and an assist and Barret Jackman added three assists, leading the St. Louis Blues to a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Blues, who will not be in the playoffs for the second year in a row. St. Louis has won just three times in its last 10 games.
Edmonton, also out of the playoffs, is 1-9-1 in its last 11 games.
The Blues outshot the Oilers 42-18.
After losing a two-goal lead in the first period, The Blues regained their two-goal advantage in the second period.
St. Louis took a 3-2 lead at the 10:08 mark on a goal by Lee Stempniak. He scored his 24th goal after getting the puck at the blue line and snapping in a shot from the top of the slot. At 16:03, Jay McClement took a pass from Weight and knocked in the puck from the right side of the net.
The Note continue the home tilt when the Anaheim Ducks pay a visit to the Scottrade Center Saturday night. Gametime is 7:05 PM CT.
Petr Cajanek added an empty-net goal with 30 seconds.
Fredrik Modin scored twice and Fredrik Norrena stopped 19 shots, helping the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1 on Tuesday night.
Rick Nash added his 24th goal and David Vyborny and Ron Hainsey each had two assists to help the Blue Jackets win their fourth in a row. Columbus has outscored its opponents 15-5 during the run, including an identical 4-1 victory over the Blues at home on Sunday.
Columbus finished 4-4 against the Blues, while taking three of four on the road. Three of St. Louis' victories in the season series came in shootouts.
The Blues have won only two of their last nine, going 2-5-2 in that span, and are two games below .500 at home. Eric Brewer scored in the second period for St. Louis.
Blues goalie Curtis Sanford, returning after missing two games with a lower body injury, was yanked after allowing three goals on 12 shots. Modin scored off his own rebound that deflected off the end boards at 11:30 of the second to put the Blue Jackets ahead 3-0 and chase Sanford in favor of Jason Bacashihua.
Modin has a pair of two-goal games in the last four games, and has scored five goals overall in that span. Nash roofed his shot on a two-man advantage in the third for a three-goal lead.
Alexander Svitov started the scoring on a deflection of Hainsey's shot from the point on a power play at 15:35 of the first, scoring his eighth goal and first in 16 games.
Modin made it 2-0 at 35 seconds of the second when he stole an outlet pass, skated in a semicircle and scored on a high drive when no one picked him up.
Norrena blanked the Blues until Brewer scored his sixth goal off a drop pass from David Backes at 15:28 of the second. He had allowed two goals in each of his last five games.
The Bluenote continue their homestand when the Edmonton Oilers come to town Thursday night. The puck drops at 7:05 PM ET.
Fredrik Modin scored his 20th goal of the season -- and 400th of his career -- in the Columbus Blue Jackets' 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday night.
Manny Malhotra added a goal and an assist for the Blue Jackets, who have won three straight. Derrick Walser and Geoff Platt scored goals, while Jason Chimera had three assists. Fredrik Norrena made 25 saves for Columbus.
Doug Weight scored for St. Louis, which has lost three of four.
Modin scored 4:57 into the second period when he took a pass from David Vyborny and roofed the puck with a backhand shot to give Columbus a 3-1 lead.
Columbus is 3-1-3 against the Blues this season and moved within five points of St. Louis for third place in the Western Conference's Central Division. The teams meet again Tuesday night in St. Louis. The game starts at 7:05 PM CT.
Two shootout tries were decided by replay. Both calls went against the Detroit Red Wings.
Doug Weight scored the only goal of the tiebreaker - a shot overturned on a review - giving the St. Louis Blues a 3-2 win over the Red Wings on Saturday.
Weight's shot was originally ruled as a save, but then changed to a goal.
Dominik Hasek slid backward toward the goal line as he attempted to make the save. He tried to stop his momentum, and referee Dan Marouelli signaled no goal. But the puck found its way into the net. Weight was St. Louis' final shooter in the three-round tiebreaker.
Dan Cleary, on Detroit's last attempt, was stopped by Jason Bacashihua on a similar play. That save also was reviewed, but upheld.
Tomas Mojzis netted his first NHL goal and Brad Boyes also scored for St. Louis. Bacashihua made 40 saves in the winning effort.
It's the fourth time St. Louis has beaten Detroit this season. Three have been since Andy Murray took over as coach on Dec. 11, after Mike Kitchen was fired.
The Blues will end their roadtrip with a visit to Columbus to face the Blue Jackets. The game starts at 5:30 PM CT.
Marian Gaborik scored twice and linemate Pavol Demitra had a goal and two assists as the Minnesota Wild won their franshise-record eighth consecutive game, beating the St. Louis Blues 5-1 on Thursday night.
Demitra set up both of Gaborik's goals and scored on an assist from Gaborik. The pair has combined for 66 points in Minnesota's last 24 games. The Wild moved back to within one point of idle Vancouver for the lead in the Northwest Division.
It was the fifth loss in six games for the Blues, who are 10th in the Western Conference.
Outshot 12-5 in the opening period, the Blues still emerged with a lead after Doug Weight converted a 2-on-1 break, snapping a hard wrist shot past goaltender Niklas Backstrom's glove.
It took Minnesota nearly eight minutes to register its first shot of the second period, but the Wild tied the game shortly thereafter. Demitra, who spent seven-plus seasons with the Blues, scored against his former team for the fourth time this season.
The Blues will Travel to Detroit to take on the hated rival Red Wings Saturday afternoon. The puck drops at 1:00 PM ET.
In a nutshell, I am a huge hockey fan. I have been a fan of the St. Louis Blues since I was very little, so I decided to make a blog dedicated to news and information pertaining to the St. Louis Blues. This is to all the die-hard Blues fans out there who need their information constantly. GO BLUES!!!
