Senators at Blues
The St. Louis Blues are in a tight battle with Nashville for first place in the Central Division despite winning 12 of their last 15 games and look to pad their slim one-point lead when they host the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. It is the second matchup in four days between the clubs - the Blues won at Ottawa on Saturday and followed that up with a victory in Winnipeg the following day to salvage a 2-2-0 road trip. The Senators had won seven of the previous nine meetings with St. Louis prior to Saturday's setback.
Ottawa kicked off a rugged five-game road trip with an uninspiring performance, falling to Detroit 4-3 in a game that only appeared close due to a goal in the final minute. The Senators allowed four unanswered tallies after taking an early lead and were completely dominated in the first two periods, getting outshot by better than a 2-to-1 margin (31-14). “Disappointing,” Ottawa's Kyle Turris said. “We can’t play the first two periods like that, going into the third trying to battle back. That’s not going to work in this league.”
TV: 8 p.m. ET, RDS (Ottawa), FSN Midwest (St. Louis)
ABOUT THE SENATORS (9-7-4): Ottawa coach Paul MacLean lamented his team's inability to play 60 minutes but is hoping for a carry-over effect after the Senators scored twice in the third period Monday. “We said, 'Let's go out and win the the third period,'” MacLean said. “See if we can come into the third period and create some momentum going into (Tuesday) night's game and we did that.” Turris and captain Erik Karlsson each scored a goal and set up another while an assist went to Blues killer Bobby Ryan, who has amassed 15 goals and 27 points in 21 career games against St. Louis.
ABOUT THE BLUES (14-6-1): Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester sat out Sunday's win to end his "Iron Man" streak at 737 games - the longest streak in professional sports - and is listed as day-to-day but his replacement had a noteworthy debut. Blue-liner Chris Butler, a veteran of six seasons split between Calgary and Buffalo, became the second St. Louis native to suit up for the Blues and acquitted himself well, according to coach Ken Hitchcock. "He was good," Hitchcock said. "He was nervous early, and then he really got better. He can create separation. He's a little bit of a smaller version of (Jay Bouwmeester), but he was good for us."
OVERTIME
1. Blues F Vladimir Tarasenko has 11 goals in the last 14 games.
2. Karlsson has two goals and three assists during a four-game point streak.
3. Blues D Alex Pietrangelo has two assists in back-to-back games after collecting one point in the previous nine contests.