ST. LOUIS — Happy holidays, from Charlie Lindgren and the rest of your St. Louis Blues. The goalie known as “Chuck” was up to his hijinks Friday night at Enterprise Center, stymying the Dallas Stars 4-1 in the team's final home game before Christmas.
The Blues’ home points streak is getting about as long as Lindgren’s sideburns – they are now 8-0-1 over their last nine home contests and improved to 17-8-5 overall. Next up are three games in Canada before Christmas, starting with a Saturday contest in Winnipeg.
At the risk of oversimplifying it, Lindgren is playing with supreme confidence. He’s seeing everything, is aggressive on puck, and seems almost unbeatable beat these days. His teammates have responded with some of the team’s best defensive play since the 2019-20 season, back-checking continuously and supporting each other in both zones.
But like Tuesday’s game in Dallas – also a 4-1 victory – this one started out tight as could be.
If you like endless checking and lengthy wall battles – and who doesn’t? – this was your kind of hockey in the first period. Open ice was mostly a pipe dream. Clean looks all but non-existent. Neither team had much in the way of Grade A chances. Grade B’s and C’s, maybe.
Then again, we’ve seen this movie before. Just three days ago in Dallas in fact, when the teams played nearly two full periods before anybody got on the board. The Blues had an opening-minute power play Friday when Stars captain Jamie Benn was sent off for interference 36 seconds in, with Ryan O’Reilly drawing the penalty.
But the Blues had trouble just navigating the neutral zone, much less getting any kind of a scoring opportunity, on the power play.
Unlike Tuesday at American Airlines Center, the Blues faced Braden Holtby in goal for Dallas. Holtby has been tough on the Blues over his career, with an 8-1-0 record, 2.31 goals-against average and .924 save percentage. All of those games came as a member of the Washington Capitals.
Then again, the Stars were still trying to decipher the goal-tending wizardry of Lindgren, who limited them to one goal on 34 shots Tuesday.
About the best thing the Blues had going for them in the first period Friday was their physical play. With fourth-liners Dakota Joshua and Alexei Toropchenko leading the way, St. Louis had 12 hits over the first 20 minutes. On Tuesday in Dallas, the Blues totaled 25 hits, which tied for their third-highest total of the regular season.
It took a St. Louisan, Logan Brown, to break the stalemate in the second period. Brown came up with a puck shot off the end boards by Colton Parayko, and from behind the goal line, maneuvered in front of the net to beat Holtby in tight at the 3:35 mark of the period. Brown used his 6-6 frame to get inside position on Dallas defender Joel Hanley for the score.
It was Brown’s third goal in nine games since being called up from Springfield on Nov. 28. Brown, who also has three assists and is plus-5 over that span, is playing like he doesn’t want to go back to Massachusetts when the Blues get some injured regulars back.
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“Him coming back up here from Springfield, I thought he was a much-improved player with his skating,” Berube said Thursday. “He seems quicker and stronger. I think he’s doing a good job so far. I think there’s room for improvement still and we talked to him about that. He’s aware of things he needs to do better. And, you know, you just keep working at it.
“He’s got a lot of ability and he’s got great size, so it’s a work in progress.”
Of course, when you break a scoreless tie with a goal, that’s nothing but progress.
The Blues had a couple of excellent chances to pad that lead as the period continued, but were a little too polite with the puck. First Pavel Buchnevich passed to Ivan Barbashev in front of the net on what amounted to a 2-on-none rush. Buchnevich should have shot – he had a clean look – and nothing came of the rush.
Just a little bit later, Ryan O’Reilly passed to Brandon Saad on a 2-on-1. Again he should have taken the shot himself – and nothing came of the rush.
But “The Russians,” the line of Buchnevich-Barbashev-Vladimir Tarasenko, made amends with the period almost over. During a stretch of offensive zone pressure, Buchnevich hustled for a loose puck in the near slot. The puck went to Tarasenko who whipped around in the slot for a quick shot that seemed to surprise Holtby.
Tarasenko’s 10th goal of the season, on assists by Buchnevich and Barbashev, made it a 2-0 game with just 10.4 seconds left in the second. Over his previous two injury-plagued seasons, Tarasenko has a combined seven goals.
While on the penalty kill, the Blues almost made it 3-0 because Buchnevich was awarded with a penalty shot when hooked by Alexander Radulov at the 6:16 mark of the third. But Buchnevich couldn’t quite connect on his backhand attempt even though he had Holtby out of position – the puck rolled just wide of the net.
It was the Blues’ first penalty shot since the Stanley Cup season, with Oskar Sundqvist missing against Colorado on Nov. 30, 2018.
As the period progressed, the ice started tilting in the direction of the Stars, with sustained O-zone time. Dallas finally penetrated the impregnable fortress known as “Chuck” when Jason Robertson scored through the backdoor with 7:49 left to play.
Not to worry. Tarasenko scored his second goal of the night with a rocket from the left circle on the power play to make it a 3-1 game with 4:23 to play. The crowd responded with chants of “Vladi! Vladi! Vladi!”
Less than two minutes later Barabshev added a cherry on top to the Blues’ holiday treat, with an empty-netter.
At night’s end, the Blues season goal lead was a four-way tie: Saad and “The Russians” – Barabashev, Buchnevich and Tarasenko – all have 11 goals for the seasons.
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