Penguins at Blues
The St. Louis Blues are coming off a pair of strong performances as they host the Pittsburgh Penguins in a nationally televised game Sunday afternoon for their third contest in four days. St. Louis earned a 5-2 victory at Winnipeg on Friday night - its first contest without top three defenseman Joel Edmundson, who broke his forearm in Thursday's 6-1 victory over Colorado - as it handed the Jets only their fourth regulation loss at home this season (20-4-2).
“It was a good response, probably the toughest back-to-back we have all year,” Blues goaltender Jake Allen told reporters after making 20 saves. “It was good to see that from my end what the guys were doing out there.” Pittsburgh, like St. Louis, is in excellent shape as far as playoff position goes despite losing two of its last three games, including a 4-3 shootout setback Friday at Dallas that dropped it to 10-15-3 on the road this season. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby continues to be stuck on 399 career goals after his scoring drought reached 10 games Friday, but he has 13 assists during that span. The Blues prevailed 5-4 in the season opener for both teams Oct. 4 on defenseman Alex Pietrangelo's second goal of the game in overtime.
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ABOUT THE PENGUINS (30-22-4): Phil Kessel (24 goals, team-high 65 points) had his six-game point streak snapped Friday during which he recorded three goals and eight assists. Evgeni Malkin (30 goals, 63 points) registered an assist Friday, giving him nine goals and five assists during a six-game point streak. Crosby has 17 goals and 60 points with a huge drop off to Kris Letang and Patric Hornqvist (upper-body, injured reserve), who are tied for fourth on the club with 31 points.
ABOUT THE BLUES (34-20-3): Vladimir Tarasenko (49 points) joined Brayden Schenn (club-high 53) for the team lead with 23 goals after scoring twice Friday - his first tallies after a six-game drought. Alexander Steen (12 goals, 35 points) had a goal and an assist Friday and has four points in his last three games, and six goals and six assists in his past 11. Carter Hutton (15-5-1), who leads the NHL in goals-against average (1.70) and save percentage (.944), is expected back in net after winning for the fifth time in six starts Thursday, allowing six goals during that span.
OVERTIME
1. Pittsburgh C Zach Aston-Reese recorded his first career point in his third NHL game Friday when he assisted on Riley Sheahan's first goal in 12 games.
2. St. Louis is 17-8-1 versus the Eastern Conference while the Penguins are 10-12-4 against the West.
3. Pittsburgh, which is 5-1-1 in its last seven games, fell to 17-0-1 this season when leading after two periods Friday as Dallas trailed 2-1 entering the third, while the Blues are 26-0-1 in such situations.