BLUES The St. Louis Blues snapped a two-game winless streak Wednesday with a 4-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. Oskar Sundqvist scored two goals, Ivan Barbashev had three assists and Jordan Binnington made 32 saves for St. Louis, who improved to 15-5-6.
"I thought it was a good hockey game all around," Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said. "Back and forth. We played well. It was a good game. I thought our penalty kill was good. I know we gave up one, but for the most part it kept them off the scoreboard. Big power-play goal for us in the third. Overall, a pretty solid game."
The Blues are battling injuries to several key forwards. Vladimir Tarasenko, Alexander Steen and Sammy Blais are all out and Sundqvist now joins that list after being placed on injured reserve Thursday. Sundqvist sustained a lower-body injury after a second period collision with Lightning defenseman Luke Schenn along the boards.
Nathan Walker, 25, who was recalled last week, is expected to make his Blues debut against the Stars. At the time of his call up, Walker ranked third among all AHL forwards with 22 points (12 goals, 10 assists) in 20 games this season. He has played 12 career NHL regular-season games between the Washington Capitals and Edmonton Oilers, registering one goal and one assist.
In addition, Derrick Pouliot, 25, will also debut for the Blues. Pouliot will take Carl Gunnarsson's place in the lineup as Gunnarsson is under the weather. Pouliot has 200 games of NHL experience with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Vancouver Canucks.
STARS A 3-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Dallas Stars, who fell one victory shy of setting a franchise record for their longest winning streak.
It was Dallas' first regulation loss in 13 games.
"The records are nice to set, but it's not what we're here to do," Stars forward Jason Dickinson told NHL.com. "We're here to win games. That's what we tried to do something and fell short."
"We're very happy about ourselves," added Radek Faksa. "We bounced back from the tough start (1-7-1 in first nine games), and now we feel really good about our game."
HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues beat the Stars in the first meeting between the clubs this season (3-2 on Oct. 5 in St. Louis)… St. Louis was 1-3-0 against Dallas in the regular season last year but defeated the Stars in a seven-game series in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Blues are 4-1-1 against teams from the Central Division this season, while Dallas is 5-2-1.
Since Oct. 21, the Blues are 12-3-3 (27 points), while the Stars are 12-3-1 (27 points), which shares first in the NHL in points with the Boston Bruins.
