Blues 4, Capitals 0
WASHINGTON -- Jake Allen made 32 saves, Vladimir Tarasenko scored his 35th goal of the season and the St. Louis Blues defeated the Washington Capitals 4-0 on Saturday night for their fourth straight shutout win.
Kyle Brodziak and Colton Parayko also scored as part of a three-goal second period for St. Louis (45-22-9), which has won 10 of 12 games.
It's the first time in franchise history the Blues have recorded four straight shutouts.
Patrik Bergland added a late tally for St. Louis, which kept pace with Dallas -- winners over San Jose on Saturday -- atop the Central Division.
Both teams were coming off shutout victories on Friday night, and the Blues came in with three straight, all by Brian Elliott.
Allen preserved his sixth shutout of the season with several excellent saves in the third period, one on a deflection attempt by Jason Chimera and two on shots by Alex Ovechkin, who was alone in the slot.
The Capitals (53-16-5) still need one point to clinch the President's Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs for the first time since 2009-10.
Philipp Grubauer stopped 25 shots for the Capitals.
Paul Stastny had two assists for St. Louis, winners of three of its last four on Washington's ice.
Both teams had several good chances during the early going, but the first period was scoreless.
St. Louis broke the tie at 4:45 of the second when Brodziak, alone at the top of the crease, banged home the rebound of a David Backes shot for his fifth goal of the season.
Later in the period, the Blues broke things open with a pair of goals just 1:40 apart.
First, with the teams skating 4-on-4, Parayko went end-to-end and unleashed a wrist shot from the center of a 3-on-2 rush that skittered between Grubauer's pads to make it 2-0.
The goal survived a review as Capitals head coach Barry Trotz challenged whether or not the Blues were onside coming into the zone.
Tarasenko soon capped the period when he took a feed in the slot from Jori Lehtera, who had drawn Grubauer to the right post, and fired into an empty net.
NOTES: Washington RW T.J. Oshie (flu) missed his second straight game and the Capitals' first meeting with the Blues since acquiring Oshie in exchange for RW Troy Brouwer, G Pheonix Copley and a third-round draft pick last July. ... Washington scratched included D Taylor Chorney, C Michael Latta and D Mike Weber. ... St. Louis was missing D Jay Boumeester (upper body) and D Carl Gunnarsson (lower body), who are both day to day. Blues LW Magnus Paajarvi was a scratch. ... The teams conclude the season series on April 9 in St. Louis.