Blues 4, Coyotes 1
Chris Stewart and Jamie Langenbrunner scored first-period goals and the St. Louis Blues ended their three-game losing streak with a 4-1 home triumph over the Phoenix Coyotes on Tuesday.
T.J. Oshie and Patrik Berglund also tallied, David Perron and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo each added two assists and Jaroslav Halak stopped 34 shots for St. Louis, which improved to 7-0-1 in its last eight home games and 16-5-5 overall under coach Ken Hitchcock.
Halak is 5-0-3 in his last eight starts.
Stewart opened the scoring less than five minutes into the game when he backhanded a rebound on the doorstep over a sprawled Mike Smith for his eighth goal of the season.
The Blues doubled the lead with four minutes remaining in the first as Langenbrunner, who also had an assist, tipped defenseman Barret Jackman's shot from the left point past Smith.
Radim Vrbata halved the deficit with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle during a power play with 71 seconds left in the session. But Oshie answered with a man-advantage tally of his own 4 1/2 minutes into the second, restoring St. Louis' two-goal lead.
Smith made 27 saves in his return from a lower-body injury for Phoenix, which has lost five of six and fell to 1-2-0 on its four-game road trip. The goaltender missed six contests after suffering the injury on Dec. 20 at Florida.