BLUES Jaden Schwartz scored his fourth career hat trick and also had an assist, David Perron scored twice to extend his career-best point streak to 16 games (nine goals, 12 assists) and Pat Maroon scored in his third straight game to give the Blues a dominating 7-2 performance against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.
"We were clicking on all cylinders," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "We had a lot of chances to maybe even get a couple more. When we have four lines that can score like we do, it's tough to play against."
"We had a real good start of the game," Blues Head Coach Craig Berube added. "We came out with the right mindset in this game and played our game, which is what we wanted to do."
The win allowed the Blues to keep pace in the Central Division, where they currently hold third place behind Winnipeg and Nashville. The Dallas Stars, who have the first Wild Card spot, are two points back.
RED WINGS Andreas Athanasiou scored two goals for the second straight game to help the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-2 win against the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
With Tuesday's win, the Red Wings have won two straight for the first time in over a month thanks to a 2-1 win against the New York Islanders on Saturday.
Detroit was eliminated from playoff contention last week.
"Nobody in the locker room wants to be in this spot a year from now," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill told NHL.com. "To do that, you've got to get better. There's not instant help coming from the outside generally in this League. It comes from within. What wins do is they give you a little bit of confidence, which helps you play your best, which helps you in turn get better."
HEAD-TO-HEAD Thursday's game will be the second and final meeting between the Blues and Red Wings this season. Detroit won the first meeting 4-3 on Nov. 28 in Detroit. Prior to that game, the Blues had earned points in the previous eight games against the Red Wings (4-0-4).
