The St. Louis Blues said it loud and clear with Friday night’s 5-1 victory over the Blackhawks at the Savvis Center.
They told the Hawks in no uncertain terms that they’re serious about evicting the Chicagoans from fourth place in the Western Conference and grabbing home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.
St. Louis, which has 90 points and is in fifth place a point behind the Hawks, is only one of the teams harassing them. Los Angeles and Phoenix are two points behind, and Edmonton was four back before its game Friday night game at Anaheim.
“You don’t forget about it, but you move on,” said coach Brian Sutter in the wake of the Hawks’ second loss in a row after four straight victories. “They played a heck of a first period. They went out and did to us what we wanted to do to them.”
Before the opening period had ended the outcome appeared decided. The Blues outshot the Hawks 20-5 and took a 3-0 lead on even-strength goals by Keith Tkachuk, Mike Eastwood and Pavol Demitra.
It could have been worse. The Hawks escaped unscathed after St. Louis had a two-man advantage for 78 seconds when a high-sticking call against Lyle Odelein was followed by a cross-checking infraction by Joe Reekie.
Instead of getting a lift when the penalties were wiped out, the Hawks had an immediate letdown. St. Louis swarmed goalie Steve Passmore and Eastwood scored on a rebound 16 seconds after Reekie emerged from the penalty box.
Less than two minutes later the Blues’ Al MacInnis drew blood when he high-sticked Kyle Calder, sending the Hawks on a four-minute power play on which they got no shots.
Sixty-three seconds before the end of the first period the Hawks’ situation took another turn for the worse when Bob Probert was sent off for cross-checking Tyson Nash twice. The Blues were given a four-minute power play, and 29 seconds into the second period they parlayed it into Demitra’s second goal, putting the Hawks down 4-0.
Shortly thereafter Steve Thomas’ power-play goal ended Brent Johnson’s shutout bid. But late in the second period–after the Hawks’ Eric Daze and Tony Amonte were unable to score on breakaways–Tkachuk broke away to get his second goal for the Blues and restore their four-goal lead.
“Our trend is heading in the right direction,” said St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville.
Passmore, who faced 40 shots, said: “It seemed like every time we turned around they were there. We never got into the flow. They played; we didn’t. End of story.”
