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St Luois Blues Over Arzona Wild St Louis Blues Over Arizona Wild

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Sometimes all you have to do is what's expected of you.

In a season filled with games the Blues should have won but didn't, the Blues took on the Arizona Coyotes, tied for the worst record in the NHL and, for a change, the Blues looked like a team that was 37 points up on the other in the standings.

In a rare show of dominance against the sub-basement of the league, the Blues were in control pretty much from the start and scored four times in the second period, three of them in 4 minutes and 16 seconds, in a 5-1 win over Arizona at Enterprise Center on Monday night.

Factor in a long flight home from Calgary on Sunday after a hard-fought win and a harder-fought tie in Alberta, and this had all the earmarks of a problem for the Blues. But they figured out how to handle it.

"We knew right from the start," said center Robert Thomas, who had two assists, "it wasn't going to be easy and yeah, it was a big win for us, especially after a long road trip like that."

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"We had good life," said Blues coach Craig Berube. "Being on that long road trip, you worry about it a little bit coming home. But guys were good. They came out hard."

The Blues got goals from a troika of Russians, Ivan Barbashev, Vladimir Tarasenko (two) and Pavel Buchnevich, along with one from Brayden Schenn, whose goal gave the Blues seven 20-goal scorers this season.

Tarasenko's second goal was his 25th of the season, putting him one ahead of Buchnevich, with Barbashev staying close behind with 22. With the win, the Blues are six points up on fourth-place Nashville and three points back of second-place Minnesota in the Central Division. Maybe most importantly, they are seven points clear of the first team out of the playoffs, Dallas.

After going 1-3-2 in mid-March, the Blues have turned things around with a 4-0-1 run. They face another team at the bottom of the table, Seattle, on Wednesday before an important matchup with Minnesota on Friday.

Ville Husso, matching his season high by appearing in his sixth straight game, stopped 21 of 22 shots he faced as he won his 20th game of the season.

"He's done a great job," Berube said. "I think right from camp. I think it started last year late. He worked on his game throughout the season with Davey (Alexander) and got better and better and he had a good finish. And then came in this year and he's been really good from the get-go. He's at the rink probably first most days, doing what he needs to do to get ready to play. His focus is really good right now. He's just gotta continue to do those things."

The Blues have built momentum from runs like the one they had in western Canada before, but they only served to make the crashes more dramatic when they slammed into one of their unexpected losses. Some of the league's worst teams have given the Blues some of their toughest nights. Since mid-February, the Blues have lost to Montreal (tied for 31st), New Jersey (29th), Philadelphia (28th) and Ottawa (27th). It's one of the factors that has kept the Blues embroiled in a playoff battle in the Central, a problem that Berube blamed in part on arrogance. That was not a problem this time.

"It's coming down to crunch time," Thomas said. "You look at the standings, how close everything is, every point matters so much. That was a great road trip for us. That's a bunch of tough teams and tough travel times and all that stuff. And even tonight getting home yesterday, it's been a long trip. So I think the guys are bearing down and we're getting second, third efforts from everyone. And that's what's making us successful right now."

The Blues controlled the first period but couldn't score and in the second period, it went from 0-0 to 3-0 in just 4:16, and against a struggling Arizona team that pretty much sealed the deal. Barbashev put in a rebound to make it 1-0, Tarasenko one-timed a pass from Thomas behind the net to make it 2-0 and Schenn fired in a pass from David Perron on a power play to make it 3-0.

It was the sixth time that Schenn has scored 20 goals in a season and it gave the Blues' seven 20-goal scorers for just the third time in franchise history. In addition to Tarasenko, Buchnevich, Barbashev and Schenn, Perron, Brandon Saad and Jordan Kyrou (who was back in the lineup after missing three games to illness) have 20 goals. That matches the 1984-85 team with seven players and leaves them behind the 1980-81 team, which had 10.

With Ryan O'Reilly at 16 and Thomas with 15, these Blues could get to nine.

"I think the team on the other side's gotta look at our lineup and go — 'Who we gonna match up tonight against?'" Berube said. "It's not like you have three pairs of shutdown D. It makes it difficult that way. I think someone on our team — night in and night out, and it depends on the line — is gonna get a nice matchup."

After a Buchnevich shorthanded goal, Tarasenko wrapped it up with a goal in the third. Like his first one, he one-timed a pass from Thomas into the net.

"Those two goals were huge," Thomas said. "Vintage (Tarasenko), on and off his stick in a perfect spot. That's what we expect from Vladi. A lot of those plays are from (Buchnevich). He made two great plays, the one-touch off the wall was an unreal play, and even behind the net, just getting his head up and seeing the whole play. So I mean, those two guys made those goals happen."

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Source: https://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/blues-do-what-theyre-supposed-to-in-5-1-win-over-arizona/article_c1dea5ea-1f52-53b7-852a-c56e74e938cd.html

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