It took six tries, but the St. Louis Blues finally won a shootout. The Blues defeated the Minnesota Wild by a score of 3-2 at home in a shootout to notch their fifth win in six games.
Kevin Shattenkirk scored the lone goal in the shootout. David Perron and Alex Pietrangelo scored within three minutes of each other in the second period to come back from a 1-0 deficit.
Jaroslav Halak made 29 saves, including all three in the shootout. St. Louis out-shot Minnesota by a tally of 49-31. Ironically, it was the second period that saw Minnesota get off 17 shots versus just 11 for the Blues.
The Blues were 1-for-6 in power plays and now sit at 14 percent for the year in converting extra man advantages. The one-time bottom dwellers in that category now have three teams worse than them in the NHL.
The Blues are a league-best 18-3-3 at home and are tied with the Chicago Blackhawks atop the Central Division standings with 58 points. St. Louis sits just a single point behind the Vancouver Canucks for the top seed in the Western Conference.
That's great news for Blues fans all the way around heading into the All-Star break at the end of January. St. Louis is in the middle of a home stretch with nine games out of 11 in January played at the Scottrade Center. That home cookin' goes away in February and March.
St. Louis will eventually need to figure out how to win on the road. Until then, the Blues need to win as much as they can at home before they meet tougher competition on the road. Head coach Ken Hitchcock has seen his team gradually improve since he took over early in the season. I shudder to think how the season would be going right now if Davis Payne were still in charge on the bench.
Up next for St. Louis is a game Jan. 16 against the Dallas Stars at home. The last time the two teams met, St. Louis scored two power play goals back on Dec. 26 to win 5-3 at the Scottrade Center.
William Browning was born in St. Louis and has been a lifelong Blues fan.
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