Blues at Coyotes
THE STORY: The St. Louis Blues wrap up their season-high seven-game road trip Sunday when they face off against the Phoenix Coyotes. St. Louis is tied with the New York Rangers in the race for the Presidents' Trophy, just two points ahead of Vancouver. Phoenix is even in points with Dallas for first place in the Pacific Division but concedes the tiebreaker, putting it seventh in the Western Conference – one point ahead of the trio of Colorado and division rivals Los Angeles and San Jose.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSN Midwest (St. Louis), FSN Arizona (Phoenix)
ABOUT THE BLUES (46-20-9): St. Louis has lost four of five on the road and is 2-2-2 on its trek. The Blues are one shutout away from setting a franchise record. All-Star Brian Elliott (seven) and Jaroslav Halak (six) have combined for 13 blankings, matching the previous club mark set in 1968-69 by the duo of Jacques Plante and Glenn Hall. “It's an accomplishment, for sure,” Elliott said. “Jaro and I are happy to take that. It's something that you've got to put in your back pocket and really not think about the rest of the year. It's the furthest thing from my mind right now.”
ABOUT THE COYOTES (37-26-13): Captain Shane Doan will serve the final game of his three-game suspension for elbowing Dallas' Jamie Benn in the head on Tuesday. Doan is eligible to return to the lineup Thursday against San Jose. Radim Vrbata, who leads the team with 30 goals, has been scratched from two of the last three games. Vrbata missed the shootout loss to Dallas with an illness, returned in Thursday's win over Colorado and sat out again in Saturday's shootout defeat in San Jose with a lower-body injury. Ray Whitney notched an assist against the Sharks to extend his points streak to seven games.
OVERTIME:
1. The Blues have won 10 of their last 12 games against Pacific Division opponents.
2. Phoenix has lost nine of its last 11 meetings with teams from the Central.
3. St. Louis has not scored in the last 137 minutes, 49 seconds that Elliott has been in net.