DENVER _ Jaden Schwartz and the Blues both breathed a sigh of relief together Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center.
The snake-bitten forward scored one of two third-period goals for the Blues against Colorado, helping the club rally for a 4-2 win over the last-place Avalanche.
The goal for Schwartz was his 15th of the season, but his first non-empty-net goal in his last 25 games. The reaction was evident of the frustration he's faced not scoring while being one of the team's most active players recently.
Patrik Berglund also had two goals, Nos. 20-21 on the season, and Magnus Paajarvi had the other goal for the Blues, who got 26 saves from Jake Allen in the victory.
The Blues finished their five-game road trip with a record of 4-1, giving them eight wins in their last nine games, and they allowed just six goals on the trip.
The Blues jumped back into third place in the Central Division with the win, and are now eight points ahead of Los Angeles with 10 games remaining in the regular season.
Following their five-game road trip, the Blues will be back home Thursday against Vancouver, their first appearance at Scottrade Center since March 11.
The club is scheduled to practice Wednesday in St. Louis and they'll hope to breath another sigh of relief when they take the ice. They lost center Paul Stastny in the first period Tuesday night in Colorado and his status remained unknown as the team traveled home.
The Blues managed to pull out a win without Stastny, however, on Tuesday.
The game went into the third period tied at 1-1, but the Blues picked up goals from Paajarvi and Schwartz to grab a 3-1 lead with 11 minutes, 16 seconds left in regulation.
Paajarvi's sixth of the season came on a tip after Ivan Barbashev released a shot from the circle, giving the Blues the first lead of the game.
The goal was also assisted by newcomer Zach Sanford, who wheeled around Colorado's Matt Nieto before making the pass to Barbashev.
Sanford had two assists Tuesday, also helping on Berglund's first goal.
The Blues, who had two days off after beating Arizona on Saturday, were lethargic even before losing Stastny about 13 minutes into the game.
The veteran center took a shot off the right skate from teammate Vladimir Tarasenko from close range and did not return for the rest of the game.
The Blues were already trailing 1-0 on an even-strength goal by John Mitchell and Allen had to make a couple of other early saves to keep it that way.
Blues coach MikeYeo had said after the morning skate Tuesday that his team was just "so-so" in its 3-0 shutout of the Avalanche just 16 days ago. His evaluation of the first period wouldn't have been fit for print.
The Blues were slow afoot, with Jay Bouwmeester forced to take a slashing penalty has he tried to slow down Colorado Matt Duchene on a rush.
Then shortly after Stastny's exit, the Blues went on the power play and with Paajarvi taking his spot on special teams, the unit couldn't come up with a shot.
The Blues had an offensive flurry late in the period and nearly tied the score, but truth be told, they were fortunate to be trailing only 1-0 at the first intermission.
The Blues went into Tuesday's game winners of four straight against Colorado, including that shutout in their last visit.
The Avalanche couldn't break through with a goal in that game, but they did in the first period on Mitchell's third goal of the season.
It came on a delayed penalty against Blues forward Ryan Reaves in the offensive zone, leading to a rush chance the other way. Mitchell worked around Blues defenseman Colton Parayko and, on a shot from the top of the circle, got it through traffic for a 1-0 lead just 5:32 into the game.
The Blues went to the second period trailing 1-0 and at one point had 13 shots on goal and 10 missed shots. They weren't making many opportunities and the ones they had, they weren't converting.
Schwartz hit a post, continuing his hard luck.
But late in the second period, Berglund drove the net and after nice forechecking work by David Perron, Sandford set up the Swedish center for the goal, tying the score, 1-1 with 3:10 left in the period.
It was Berglund's 20th goal of the season, marking the third time he's reached that plateau in his career, with the last being in 2010-11.
The score remained 1-1 until the third when the Blues picked up their goals from Paajarvi and Schwartz for a 3-1 lead. They gave one back to Colorado's Mark Barberio for a 3-2 score, but with Avs netminder Calvin Pickard pulled late, the Blues got an empty-netter from Berglund.
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