Blues win, tie Predators for third in Central

DENVER --The St. Louis Blues moved into a third-place tie with the Nashville Predators in the Central Division with a 4-2 victory against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center on Tuesday.
Patrik Berglund scored twice, Magnus Paajarvi and Jaden Schwartz once, and Jake Allen made 26 saves for the Blues (39-28-5), who won for the eighth time in the past nine games.
St. Louis went 4-1-0 on its five-game road trip.

WATCH: All Blues vs. Avalanche highlights
"At a crucial time the guys delivered," Schwartz said. "We lose [center Paul Stastny] and we don't have a good start at the end of a road trip, so that was a real character win for us."
Mark Barberio and John Mitchell scored for the Avalanche (20-49-3), who have lost three consecutive games.
Paajarvi tipped Ivan Barbashev's shot past goalie Calvin Pickard at 5:05 of the third period for his sixth goal to put the Blues ahead 2-1. Schwartz knocked in his own rebound at 8:44 to make it 3-1 with his 15th goal, first in 15 games.
"We're all happy for him," Blues coach Mike Yeo said. "It's almost impossible to play as well as he has and not score goals. We told him that first one was going to come around that blue paint and it was good for him to get that monkey off his back."

Berglund scored his second goal of the game and 21st of the season into an empty net with 48 seconds left after Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon rang a shot off the crossbar with 1:09 to play.
"It's tough, it's not going in," MacKinnon said. "We had a ton of chances."
The Avalanche closed to 3-2 when Barberio beat Allen from the lower left circle at 14:50 for his second goal.
Berglund tied the game 1-1 at 16:50 of the second period.
Mitchell gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 5:32 of the first period with his third goal, first in 19 games.
Allen made a big stop against Matt Nieto at 3:58. Matt Duchene carried the puck on a 2-on-1 rush and passed to Nieto cutting to the net for a backhand that Allen gloved.
"We came in expecting a better start and they smacked us pretty good with their game and it took us a while to regroup, but while we were taking that time Jake was unreal and gave us a chance," Yeo said.

Goal of the game

Forward David Perron won a battle for the puck in the left corner, enabling the Blues to gain possession to set up Berglund's second-period goal. Zach Sanford made a touch pass to Berglund in the slot for a point-blank shot.

Save of the game

Pickard denied Schwartz on a shorthanded breakaway at 18:54 of the second to keep the score tied 1-1.

Highlight of the game

The Avalanche were buzzing around Allen at 4:00 of the second, but he made a series of stops, including shots by Matt Nieto and Matt Duchene.

Unsung performance of the game

Sanford played a season-high 13:22 and had his first two assists in his third game after being a healthy scratch for six consecutive games.
"He had a real strong game," Yeo said. "Every game he's gaining confidence from us as a coaching staff and he's showing he's a responsible player."

They said it

"I think we were all a little tired from this whole trip. It's been a long trip and we are all ready to go home, but to find a way to get two points was huge. I wanted to give us a chance to win and I thought I did that. I thought I played well and our guys responded." -- Blues goalie Jake Allen
"We came out jumping, had a lot of good chances. [Allen] was good in net and we missed on a couple opportunities, that flurry in the second period. We were putting pucks at the net, it looked like the net was empty a few times and we missed. We just couldn't find a way to go up by more than one and we knew that was going to be crucial." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Need to know

Stastny missed the final two periods because of a foot injury, but it wasn't from getting hit on a shot by Vladimir Tarasenko. "I don't think it'll be anything serious at all," Yeo said. "It was not the shot. That hurt, but it was not that. It was just he tweaked something and I expect him to be ready for next game." … The Blues won all three games against the Avalanche this season and are 6-1-2 in the past nine at Pepsi Center ... Allen is 6-1-0 in his past seven starts ... The Avalanche were 0-for-3 on power plays and are 2-for-44 in the past 18 games.

What's next

Blues: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, SNP, NHL.TV)
Avalanche: Host the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; ALT, SNW, NHL.TV)