LOS ANGELES _ The St. Louis Blues have been a team of streaks since Mike Yeo took over. A six-game winning streak turned into a five-game losing streak. The Blues have started another winning streak and, in as key a game as they've had all season, they kept it going Monday night.
The Blues got goals from close range by David Perron and Magnus Paajarvi for a game that produced a big swing in the Western Conference playoff race. The 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings was the fifth in a row for the Blues and put them five points up on the Kings with 14 games to play.
As has been the case often for the Blues lately, they got the game's first goal and got excellent goaltending from Jake Allen, who stopped 21 shots in the second period alone and 38 of 39 overall. Since Yeo took over as coach, the Blues have scored the first goal in 13 of the 18 games.
Allen made some big saves in the second period on both first and second chances and didn't allow a goal until the Kings had pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker and Dustin Brown scored with 2:55 remaining. The Kings kept pressing, and not until Alexander Steen scored into an empty net with seven seconds left could the Blues relax.
The Blues lost forward Dmitrij Jaskin to an injury in the second period when he collided with teammate Robert Bortuzzo. Jaskin left the ice and did not return, with what looked like an injury somewhere in the area of his chest and shoulders.
The stakes were clear when the night began. With a win in regulation, the Blues would go five points up on their closest pursuer for the Western Conference's final playoff spot, while a Kings win in regulation would put them one point back with each team having 14 games left to play. While the schedule greatly favors the Blues, late-season hockey is a time when anything can happen.
For the second game in a row, the Blues started the day with a chance to catch Nashville for third in the Central, if the Predators lost and the Blues won. But Nashville beat Winnipeg in overtime to keep its distance from the Blues.
The first goal came from Perron, who has been dangerous against the Kings. Last season, he had four goals in six games against them, while having no more than one goal against any other team. The second came from Paajarvi on a power play, tipping in a shot by Patrik Berglund 1:10 into the third period to give the Blues a much-needed cushion.
Before Jaskin's injury, the Blues were close to being back at full strength, with Paul Stastny (flu) and Colton Parayko (lower back) back in the lineup after missing one game. The only absence was center Jori Lehtera, who isn't on the trip at the moment after taking a puck to the head last week.
The Blues were expecting the Kings to come out hard in a game Los Angeles could ill afford to lose, but the first period was fairly low key. The Kings had an early power play when Parayko was called for tripping, but the Blues killed it without much incident. Allen was effective in goal, stopping all eight shots he faced.
The game perked up in the second period, as if everyone had gotten the waiting out of their system. Mostly, it was cranked up by the Kings, who came hard at Allen, who faced 10 shots on goal in the first 10 minutes of the period. Six minutes in, Allen made a strong save on Brayden McNabb, then the Kings' Andy Andreoff put the rebound wide. A minute later, Allen made back-to-back saves on Tanner Peason and Jeff Carter, then covered the rebound in the crease.
The Blues had scoring chances of their own. The Blues had an early power play after Marian Gaborik went off for tripping Alex Pietrangelo, and while the Blues didn't record a shot on goal in the two minutes, Parayko did fire a shot that caromed off the post. Nine minutes into the period, the Blues got the puck to Bortuzzo in the slot but the defenseman, with one goal this season, shot high and wide.
With about 8 { minutes to go in the period, Jaskin left the ice after colliding with Bortuzzo. Bortuzzo was defending Trevor Lewis in the Blues' end, and when Lewis cut around Bortuzzo, Jaskin, trailing the play, crashed into Bortuzzo and went down. Trainer Ray Barile came out and helped Jaskin off the ice and into the dressing room.
The Blues finally broke through with 8:02 to go in the second. Kings goalie Jonathan Quick made a save on a shot by Perron, who slapped a pass by Steen right into Quick. But with Quick sprawled on the ice, the puck rolled off the back of his leg and onto the ice. As soon as it hit the ice, Perron wedged his stick in and slid the puck into the goal to make it 1-0.
The Kings had another power play after Stastny was called for tripping with 5:20 to go in the second, which the Blues killed, though Allen had to make another nice save on Jarome Iginla just after the power play ended.
The Blues got a power play early in the third period when Jeff Carter was called for holding Vladimir Tarasenko as he bore in on Quick. On the power play, Berglund had a shot blocked by Anze Kopitar, but the puck came back to him and he shot again, with Paajarvi, standing near the far post, tipping the puck into the upper left corner for his fifth goal of the season and his fourth since returning to the lineup Feb. 7 after being recalled from Chicago.
