St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Jaroslav Halak made 20 stops to lead the
St. Louis Blues in a 2-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Tuesday.
T.J. Oshie scored both goals for the Blues, whose loss to Vancouver on Friday
snapped a seven-game winning streak.
"This was a good game for us coming off that bit of a break we had," said
Oshie. "Halak made some huge saves because this game could have easily gone
the other way if it weren't for him."
Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored the only goal of the game for the Coyotes, who
have dropped their past four games. Mike Smith stopped 16 shots in the loss.
"This was much better because we gave ourselves a chance to win," said Phoenix
head coach Dave Tippett. "We had a lot of chances to score in the third. We
took some steps in fixing our problems here tonight."
The only goal of the first period went to St. Louis near the midway mark, as
Alex Pietrangelo skated around the right circle before finding an open Oshie
at the top of the circle for a one-timer past Smith.
St. Louis made it a 2-0 game at 12:54 of the second on the power play as
Oshie's wrister from the high slot made its way through a screen.
The Coyotes cut their deficit in half with 47.9 seconds to play in the second.
On the power play, Keith Yandle sent a pass from the left circle over to the
right where Ekman-Larsson wristed the puck home for his sixth of the year.
Phoenix, though, managed just eight shots on net and failed to score on a
power play in the third as the Blues skated off with a fifth straight win at
home.
Game Notes
St. Louis hosts Los Angeles on Thursday ... Phoenix hosts Vancouver on
Thursday ... Phoenix had taken a 3-2 win in overtime at home against St. Louis
on Nov. 12 ... Both teams were 1-for-3 on the power play.