Blues look to stay hot on road in Game 3 against Stars, take series lead

BERKELEY, Mo. -- The St. Louis Blues are confident they can continue their road success in the Stanley Cup Playoffs heading into Game 3 of the Western Conference Second Round against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Monday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS).

The Blues are 3-0 in the playoffs away from Enterprise Center. The best-of-7 series is tied 1-1.
St. Louis won three games against the Winnipeg Jets in the first round at Bell MTS Place, one of the tougher venues in the NHL for visiting teams. The road success goes back to the regular season.
RELATED: [Complete Blues vs. Stars series coverage]
The Blues finished the regular season winning 12 of their final 20 road games (12-4-4) and had the fewest regulation losses in the West and fourth-fewest in the NHL (21-13-7).
"We've been good on the road all year," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "I don't necessarily think we played bad last night (in a 4-2 loss in Game 2). We did a lot of good things. I think we gave ourselves a chance, especially at the end of the game there, but I think we've got to do more consistently throughout a game. I think on the road, we've been doing that. We've done it all year, especially in the second half.
"We've been playing well on the road, especially in the playoffs. We've had some success obviously playing Winnipeg. We feel confident going in there. Another tough building to play in, but we feel confident off of what we were able to do last series."
The Blues attribute their road success to playing a simpler game away from home, getting to their game quicker and confidently rolling four lines and three defensive pairings without getting the matchups they want.

"I just think we get to our game right away," forward Pat Maroon said. "Maybe we like playing on the road in front of the other fans. I just think bonding with the guys and being with the guys on the road makes it a lot different. I just think we establish our game right away. At home, I feel like we wait for them to come at us instead of dictating the play right away. On the road, we try to dictate the play right off the bat. We get to our game right away. I don't know why that happens. It's a weird game like that, but we're fully confident going into Dallas right now tied 1-1, we're still in a really good spot.
"At home, I don't know what it is. We struggle, but it is what it is. We've got to put it behind us now. It's tied 1-1, we're going in tomorrow, we've got to find a way to win."
So why do the Blues get to their game quicker on the road?
"I don't know," center Brayden Schenn said. "Yeah, I guess really no one to impress, no distractions, you've just got to worry about yourself. We worry about each other and just try to find a way to win hockey games. That's what we did last series."
The Blues are expecting a long series after a 3-2 victory in Game 1 and a 4-2 loss in Game 2.
"We would (have) obviously liked to take two at home," Maroon said. "But the good thing is we've won one game at home, they took one. I think right now, we haven't shown them our best. There's got to be more compete, our compete level's got to be higher. We played a really tough Winnipeg team. We've got to find way to go into Dallas, we're a good road team, so I'm fully confident, but they haven't seen our best, so that's a good thing. I think once they see our best, it's going to be a good series."