NASHVILLE – The goals were plentiful Sunday, like resplendent eggs on an Easter morning lawn.
If you thought the Blues might be a little flat after clinching a playoff berth a day earlier against Minnesota, think again.
After a 1-1 first period Sunday at Bridgestone Arena, the Blues scored a touchdown in the second period against the Nashville Predators.
Seven goals in one period. That’s a franchise record for the Blues.
Vladimir Tarasenko notched a goal and two assists, setting a career high for points in one season.
Jordan Kyrou snapped out of his scoring slump with a couple of goals.
Brayden Schenn scored twice, boosting his season total to 24.
And did we mention Calle Rosen? Yes, Calle Rosen. The 28-year-old native of Vaxjo, Sweden, played in his 34th NHL game Sunday – his 14th Blues game. And scored twice in the second period against the Predators. He had one career NHL goal to his credit prior to Sunday.
So yes, things are going well for the Blues. They won their ninth straight game Sunday, and ran their point streak to 12 games (11-0-1) with an 8-3 smashing of, uh, Smashville.
And yes, the franchise-reocrd streak of games with four goals or more now stands at 12.
Robert Thomas extended his career-long point streak to 13 games. Pavel Buchnevich extended his career-long point streak to 10 contests.
Sense a trend here? The Blues are streaking.
After Nashville’s Nick Cousins and Schenn traded goals in the first period, the Blues went crazy in the second.
Tarasenko, Rosen and Kyrou rang up goals to make it 4-1 and that was it for Preds goalie Juuse Saros midway through the period. Nashville coach John Hynes started Saros in the second game of a back-to-back – the Predators are fighting for a wild card spot and need the points. So they went with their ace in goal.
Didn’t work. Out skated David Rittich to replace Saros. That didn’t work, either. Rittich gave up four goals himself before the period was out – by Rosen (again), Nathan Walker and Schenn (again).
The Blues paused to catch their breath as St. Louisan Luke Kunin scored for Nashville. But then Kyrou scored (again) with 47 seconds left in the second period to make it an 8-2 game.
The Predators left the ice for the intermission break to boos from their fans. When the Preds returned for the start of the third period, the stands were half empty. Apparently, several thousand thought the best move at this point was returning home to make a further dent in the Easter candy.
The Blues put it in cruise control in the third period, while the Predators got a third goal – from Dante Fabbro - with Jordan Binnington in the net for St. Louis.
Nashville fell to 43-28-5. They have 91 points as does Dallas in the wild-card fight, but Dallas was idle Sunday, so the Stars have played one fewer game than Nashville.
The Blues meanwhile gained no ground on Minnesota because the Wild beat San Jose 5-4 in overtmie on Sunday.
