GameRecap: Blues Lose Key Game To Avs

One trend was broken as another continued Monday night.

Colorado Avalanche power forward Chris Stewart was quiet. Enough so that head coach Joe Sacco benched the right winger for the entirety of the third period.

Good news right? Not entirely.

Another “Blues Killer” emerged from the Avs right wing. As Brandon Yips pair of tallies (his 8th and 9th of the season) in the second kept the home team close enough to take the game in the third. Defeating the Blues 4-3. Extending the losing streak to three games and sinking their January record to 2-7-2.

The Note did not go down with out a fight. Their compete level was much better than it had been most of January. Their second period play was the strongest outside of efforts against the Kings.

Yet, the same story played out as it has for two seasons. The AVs survive and repel enough Blues attacks to stay in the game. Then come back swinging and get in a momentum and confidence killing goal. Yip’s wrap around stuff just ahead of Jaroslav Halak’s right leg pad was the cluprit. The Blues were up 2-1 late in the second when Yip made his move.

Soft call or not for slashing on BJ Crombeen which gave the Avs the man advantage opportunity, it’s one of many bad offensive zone penalties the Blues took.

Rookie sensation Kevin Shattenkirk scored his 7th halfway through the third period on the Avs second PPG of the night. Ryan Stoa’s first pushed the score to 4-2. A much needed cushion goal since David Backes scored his 16th to make it 4-3 with less than 2 minutes left.

Brad Boyes has been the Blues goat at times, but had himself going the right direction. His slick feeds to Jay McClement (6th) and Eric Brewer (8th) were the markers that gave the Blues their second period lead. Though he earned a facepalm for his 4 minute double minor for high sticking Yip. The subsequent power play is when Shattenkirk scored.

Peter Budaj won the second Slovak Battle. He stopped 21 of 24 Blues shots. Halak stopped 28 of 32 Avs shots.

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