The Blues kept their run of strong play going with not just a dominant effort, but one against their closest pursuer in the Central Division.
The Blues scored as many goals as they had in their previous three games combined, and nearly posted their third straight shutout, giving up a goal with 3:33 to play and they had to settle for a 5-1 win over the Stars on Friday night at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Even though it wasn't a shutout, it may have been the most impressive and significant of the team's three-game win streak, coming against a team two points in back of them in the division, on the second night of back-to-back games and with captain Alex Pietrangelo out sick.
Alexander Steen, David Perron, Jordan Kyrou, Jaden Schwartz and Colton Parayko scored for the Blues. Dallas' late goal snapped the Blues shutout streak at 178:39.
Pietrangelo was out sick, and center Tyler Bozak was out with a lower-body injury. It was the first game Pietrangelo has missed this season and the second for Bozak. Robert Bortuzzo and Mackenzie MacEachern have moved into the lineup.
The win put the Blues four points up on Dallas, which two nights ago had pulled even with them in the standings.
Parayko's goal in the third period sealed the win and gave him a three-point night with a goal and two assists. Parayko has seven goals on the season, with five of them coming since the start of February.
Jake Allen was in goal for the Blues and stopped 18 of the 19 shots he faced. It was the third straight game in which the Blues didn't allow more than nine shots in any period.
Kyrou, who has elevated his play in the past three games, got a partial breakaway after a takeaway by Robert Thomas, made a nice move and got open to score his third goal of the season 2:24 into the second.
About 2 { minutes later, Schwartz scored his 20th goal of the season as they pounced on another turnover and Ryan O'Reilly fed Schwartz for the goal. The Blues now have three players with 20 or more goals: Schwartz, Perron (24) and Brayden Schenn (20). After that goal, Dallas pulled goalie Ben Bishop from the game and replaced him with Anton Khudobin.
The Blues made it a little tougher on themselves by putting Dallas on the power play three times in the second (one of which carried over into the third) but the Blues handled them well and killed them off so easily that Dallas fans were booing their team.
The first-period goals by Steen and Perron were both set in motion by booming shots by Parayko, who has seen the number of shot attempts he's taking sky rocket since the All-Star break.
On the first, a shot by Parayko led to a rebound in front. Kyrou couldn't put the puck in, but Steen eventually did for his seventh goal of the season. It came 5:48 into the game.
Another shot by Parayko did it again, with Perron putting it in this time, with 2:42 to go in the first. It was his team-high 24th goal of the season and his first since Jan. 31. Perron looked to have a goal on Thursday against Arizona, but it was wiped out on appeal because he was offside on the play.
The Blues held the Stars to just six shots on goal and just nine shot attempts in the first and seven shots on goal in the second. That's the eighth straight period and the 12th in the last 13 where the Blues have held their opponent to single digits in shots on goal. After back-to-back shutouts by Jordan Binnington, Allen was sharp in goal Friday.
