Article Written By: Adam Wible
The St. Louis Blues had their hands full on the road, against division foe, Colorado Avalanche, Saturday afternoon.
Ryan Miller has been red-hot since his trade from Buffalo. This game was by no means a cake walk for St. Louis, but it showed their resiliency, on the road.
Both teams traded penalties and opportunities, but neither could break open the scoring. Both tied with eight shots each in the opening frame.
The Blues took a 1-0 lead at 7:03 of the second period on a goal by David Backes, who has six goals and five assists in his past nine games against the Avalanche. That would be the only scoring, as the Blues took the lead into the third.
Patrik Berglund gave the Blues a 2-0 lead at 3:53 of the third period with an uncanny shot from the right circle. He spun around and shot the puck between Avalanche defenseman Nate Guenin’s legs, and by Varlamov’s glove for his fourth goal in the past four games.
The Avalanche, who haven’t been shut out this season, made it 2-1 with 11:03 to go on a goal by Pa Parenteau. Parenteau put in a rebound given up by Miller, on a Matt Duchene shot.
Miller made a save against Gabriel Landeskog, with six minutes to play, after a Blues turnover in their end. Landeskog was on his knees when he shot the puck off Miller’s mask.
“When he fell to his knees I thought maybe he’d consider pushing it to a guy who was still up,” said Miller, “He caught me in the eye right there. I was kind of fortunate he didn’t pick a corner and he hit me. When he went down I was thinking pass and maybe I hesitated a little bit. Smart play by him to shoot it. Not really an attempted save.”
“It’s been great to contribute,” Miller said. “Things have really worked out in our favor. It’s been good, a hard-working game, guys are playing honest hockey and they’ve gotten good results because of it.”
It’s hard to disagree. Miller is 4-0-0 since becoming a Blue. He has allowed one goal in each of the past two games.
Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock said of Miller, “He just absorbs everything. He was good tonight. You need your goalie to win on the road. He absorbs all the shots. His whole disposition calms everyone down. There’s a reason he’s won so many games.”
Avalanche rookie forward Nathan MacKinnon didn’t have a shot on goal and had his scoring streak stopped at 13 games.
“I thought both teams played really well,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “I thought it was a hard-fought game and was very entertaining for our fans. Our guys battled until the end and we had some good chances 6-on-5. We showed a lot of good things out there.”
Game Picks: Nashville, Minnesota, Vancouver, and San Jose
