Blues hope momentum from shutout carries over against Canucks
ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues are coming off arguably their most impressive win of the season Friday night.
The big question is can they build on it when they host the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday afternoon.
Goalie Jake Allen starred in the 1-0 win at Winnipeg on Friday, stopping all 26 shots in career shutout No. 17, which moved him past Glenn Hall for third-most shutouts in franchise history.
"It's pretty cool," Allen told NHL.com last season after tying Hall with 16 shutouts. "I think it was a lot harder for Glenn to get shutouts back in the day than it is for us now. But I'll take it. It's pretty cool to have that under my belt and hopefully I'll get a lot more over the years."
It was Allen's first shutout since Dec. 7, 2017, a 3-0 win over Dallas.
Defenseman Colton Parayko scored the lone goal in a game that played out much differently than the last time the Blues faced the Jets. The game resulted in an 8-4 Jets victory at Enterprise Center in which Patrik Laine scored five goals.
"It's something we definitely want to take pride in is being a good defensive group, and we weren't happy with what happened at home last game, obviously," Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo told NHL.com. "Guys stepped up and made hard plays in hard areas and tried to take a lot of their shooting areas away."
While blanking the Jets on the road is impressive, the Blues have been down this road before this season but have failed each time to back up an impressive result with another.
The last time the Blues won consecutive games was Nov. 6 against Carolina and Nov. 9 against San Jose. The Blues have yet to win three straight this season. After their last three wins, they lost by scores of 6-1, 8-4 and 4-0.
"You don't just talk about a win," Blues interim coach Craig Berube told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It's a process. We've got to come out and have the same mindset. You've got to come out and play hard and compete hard and do things right."
This is the first meeting between the Blues and Canucks this season. St. Louis has won the last five games against Vancouver dating to Oct. 18, 2016.
But Vancouver is coming off of a 5-3 win over Nashville on Thursday, snapping a four-game skid.
"I think we played good some games that we lost," Canucks center Elias Pettersson told NHL.com. "It's good to finally be rewarded, get some bounces with us. We played really good today. This is what it's going to take from us to be successful. Hopefully, we can build on this."
Pettersson scored on a penalty shot and right winger Jake Virtanen and center Bo Horvat each had a goal and an assist in the Canucks' win.
"It was a highly skilled move by a highly skilled player," Horvat told NHL.com of Pettersson's penalty shot. "It was a huge goal for us at the time, especially towards the end of the period. You expect him to do those kind of things and it's nice to see that go in for him."
