Penguins at Blues
THE STORY: The
Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues are arguably the two hottest
teams in the NHL. Pittsburgh rides a six-game winning streak into St.
Louis on Tuesday, mostly because of the outstanding play of Evgeni
Malkin. Malkin received the NHL’s First Star of the Week after recording
five goals and seven points in four games. The Russian sniper also owns
a six-game goal scoring streak in which he has scored nine, part of the
reason why he leads the league with 58 points. The Blues had a
four-game winning streak halted Monday by the Detroit Red Wings. Despite
the loss, the Blues are still 8-1-1 in their last 10 games. St. Louis
was victorious in the previous meeting when Alex Pietrangelo scored the
game-winner in overtime to give the Blues the 3-2 victory on Nov. 23.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, ROOT Sports (Pittsburgh), FS Midwest (St. Louis)
ABOUT THE PENGUINS (27-17-4):
St. Louis hockey product Joe Vitale will make his first visit to
Scottrade Center as a visiting NHL player on Tuesday. The 26-year-old
center attended CBC High School in St. Louis, helping his team win three
state championships. Vitale is a solid penalty killer and leads the
team in faceoff percentage. He has two goals and nine points in 41
games with the Penguins this season. Kris Letang has scored in
back-to-back games, and James Neal has collected six points in his last
three contests.
ABOUT THE BLUES (29-13-6): The Blues are 23-6-6 since Ken Hitchcock
replaced the fired Davis Payne as coach when the team was 6-7-0, and
have become a contender in the tightly contested Western Conference.
Pietrangelo has been fantastic at the back end for the Blues. He was
riding a career-high nine game point streak prior to Monday. The
22-year-old has recorded eight goals and 16 assists in 46 games this
season.
OVERTIME:
1. The Blues are surrendering a league-low 1.96 goals against per game.
2. St. Louis goaltenders Brian Elliott and Jaroslav Halak have combined for nine shutouts this season.
3. Halak hadn't lost in regulation in 14 games (11-0-3) prior to Monday.