Pre-Game Capsule: Coyotes vs. Blues

GAME 79:
Coyotes (27-40-11) vs. Blues (43-28-6)
Back in Arizona after six road games in a row, the Coyotes will play their penultimate home game of the season when they host St. Louis on Saturday night.

WHERE: Gila River Arena
WHEN: 6 p.m. (AZ time)
TV: FOX Sports Arizona Plus
RADIO:ESPN 620 AM

KEY FACTS:
• The Coyotes enter tonight's game, their first on home ice since March 19, with an 18-13-6 record since the calendar flipped to 2018.
• Antti Raanta will start in net vs. the Blues. Raanta has won seven of his past eight starts and he stopped 228 of 239 shots in those games. That's a .954 save percentage. This game will be Raanta's third appearance vs. St. Louis this season. He's 1-0-1 after the first two, with 61 saves on 65 shots.
• Coyotes defensemen have produced 45 of the team's 195 goals this season. Oliver Ekman-Larsson leads the way with 13. Only three other NHL teams - Nashville, Philadelphia and Columbus - have gotten more goal production from their blueliners. Arizona and Nashville are the only NHL teams which have three defensemen with 10 goals or more this season.
• Kevin Connauton has scored three goals in the past two games and has produced 10 on the season - a career-high. Connauton has tallied nine of his goals since Feb. 1. Only Tampa Bay's Victor Hedman has matched Connauton's goal production during that span among NHL defensemen.

• Brendan Perlini has scored three of his 17 goals this season vs. St. Louis.
• Clayton Keller, whom the NHL named its Rookie of the Month for October, is a strong candidate to win that award again for March. With one game to go, Keller has generated 18 points (six goals, 12 assists) in 16 games this month. That's a record for points in a month by a Coyotes rookie. Keller, who grew up near St. Louis, has yet to score a goal vs. the Blues in four games.
• Christian Dvorak did not participate in the morning skate on Saturday because of a lower-body injury and will be a game-time decision, per Coyotes Head Coach Rick Tocchet.

• St. Louis, which has won nine games in a row at Gila River Arena, lost to Vegas, 4-3 in overtime, on Friday night. Prior to that game, the Blues had won six games in a row. With five games left, St. Louis holds the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference playoff standings. Brayden Schenn leads the Blues with 65 points and 39 assists. Vladimir Tarasenko is the team's top goal scorer with 31. Goalie Jake Allen, who played Friday night at Vegas, will make his 12th consecutive start. Allen is 7-0-0 with a 1.14 goals-against average, a .958 save-percentage and two shutouts in eight career starts vs. the Coyotes.

COYOTE BITES:
• "Not making the playoffs is considered a failure. Obviously that's the goal here. But we're happy with the way things are going as of late. As a team we're growing a lot and we're playing some good hockey right now. I think the big focus for us is to carry that into next year." -- Kevin Connauton
• "The three wins we got, we're proud of. This whole second half of the year has been really positive for us in the locker room. We have confidence now just knowing we're as good as anyone." -- Christian Fischer on 3-3-0 road trip
• "Their defense is always good. (Alex) Pietrangelo and all those guys back there, it's a solid, solid group. They can score and they can defend. And they've got scrappy forwards. They've got a lot of pieces, and that's the reason why they've been hot the last month." -- Rick Tocchet on Blues