GameRecap: Blues Drop Oilers 5-3

The rust from an extended vacation from real time action showed Friday night. As the Edmonton Oilers jumped out to a lopsided lead in the shot on goal department, but the St. Louis Blues converted on their opportunities. Propelling the Note to a 5-3 victory. Their first two point game since January 18th.

TJ Oshie opened the scoring with his third of the season. Thanks to the effort of Alex Steen to beat his defender one on one he set up Oshie on the right wing face-off circle. His cross body shot caught Oilers netminder Devan Dubnyk sliding out of position. Blues up 1-0. Sam Gagner answered for Edmonton on yet another “behind the net” set up burns the note. Game tied 1-1. Alex Pietrangelo pushed the Blues lead back to one less than 30 seconds following Gagner’s stike. Petro’s shot trickled through past Dubnyk to end the period 2-1 St. Louis.

Bucking their trend of poor second periods the Blues came out firing in the second. Matt D’Agostini deflects in Nikita Nikitin’s point shot. The Blues first goal on the man advantage in three games. Brad Boyes pushed the lead to 4-1 before Edmonton started clawing their way back in the game. Scoring twice in the last six minutes of the second period. The first came from rookie sensation Taylor Hall. His backhand attempt flipped and flopped its way behind Ty Conklin exactly a minute after Boyes tally. The Oilers collapse the defense and crash the crease and Theo Peckham comes down from his defensive position to make the score 4-3 after two.

Brad Winchester scored the lone goal of the third period. As the Blues collapse on Dubnyk the puck squeaks out of the melee. Jay McClement finds Winchester open to the weak side and the Bleus go up 5-3 for good.

Quick Hits

Conklin started in place of Jaroslav Halak who was unable to play due to an upper body injury. Conks stopped 29 of 32 shots against. This was an outstanding effort for the Blues backup who had been performing poorly in his recent starts.

Dubnyk stopped only 21 of 26 Blues shots.

The Steen-Berglund-Oshie line was the best on the ice. No coincidence that Patrik Berglund’s play has been elevated with the return of buddy TJ. The top line of Andy McDonald, David Backes and Boyes also played well. Boyes had the nice cross ice pass to set up an open Pietrangelo for his goal. The only knock on Backes’ line was their ability to win draws. The trio was a combined 9 for 24 in the circle.

McDonald looked just fine in his return. Using his speed and mobility to attack in transition. His 18:21 TOI shows he’s really back to normal. He had the secondary assist on Petro’s goal.

The line of Hall, Andrew Cogliano and Jordan Eberle had their moments and created many of the Oilers best scoring chances. Hall is the real deal. Keep an eye on that kid.

For the first time in a long time the Blues showed resiliency and push back. When the Oilers hacked, the Blues hacked back. No coincidence that Oshie, Winchester and Barret Jackman were tops in that department.

Captain Eric Brewer was a late scrarch due to his wife going in to labor. They welcome a baby girl to the world this morning. Congrats to the Brewer family. Tyson Strachan skated in his stead.

Would love to see the numbers on this, but how often do the Blues win when Cam Janssen throws down on Scottrade ice? I’d imagine it’s more often than not. His first period bout with Jeff Vandermeer wasn’t the greatest, but got the crowd going.

Erik Johnson was kicked in the mouth (it looked like) making a diving attempt to break up a play.  Haven’t seen an update on him today.

Next Up

@Tampa Bay Lighting – Sunday, February 6th, 2011 – 2:00pm Central FSMW (HD) & 1120 AM KMOX