Three Takeaways From Blues’ 4-1 Win Against Flames
ST. LOUIS – One was good, but the St. Louis Blues needed another.
And they got it.
Heading into this rare two-game home set against the Calgary Flames, the Blues were five points out of the second wild card from the Western Conference.
A regulation win and loss would have meant a wash and two fewer games remaining on the schedule. Two regulation losses could have been catastrophic.
The Blues set themselves up well with a narrow, hard-fought win on Tuesday. They came out with meaning and purpose on Thursday and swept the set, winning 4-1 behind two goals from Brayden Schenn, two assists from Dylan Holloway, Colton Parayko scoring in his third straight game and Joel Hofer improved to 7-1-1 in his past nine starts with 29 saves.
The Blues (22-20-4) are now right back in the thick of the playoff chase, trailing the Flames (21-16-7) by a point but Calgary has two games in hand and tied with the Vancouver Canucks in points (48) but the Canucks have two games in hand.
“It was really important,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. ‘We needed to win both games to really get close. Now we’re one point behind them. They have two games in hand, but they’ve got to go win those games. We did what we needed to do in these two games, but most importantly, the way we played tonight, the way everybody in the lineup competed, especially in the first and third. I thought Calgary had a good push there in the first 15 minutes of the second, and then that power play goal was big at the end of the second.”
Let’s go into the Three Takeaways:
* Setting the tone in the first period with skating legs, checking – The Blues came out with a purpose in this game.
There was no content with winning just the one game Tuesday, the Blues needed another regulation win to really start making this a crowded pack again and they did so by outshooting the Flames 15-7 and gaining a 3-0 lead.
“Yeah, I thought we really played on our toes and we were checking,” Montgomery said. “I thought we came…
