Blues 3, Wings 2

The St. Louis Blues have won their first two straight games this season by beating the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2. The Red Wings continued their winless streak in four games with tonight's loss being their first to a Central Division opponent. They face the Nashville Predators on Monday at Joe Louis Arena. Tonight's game marked the fourth time the two teams have met this season, each previous game had resulted in a Wings' win while outscoring the Blues, 13-5. First Period Not a whole lot happened in the first period. There were no goals and three penalties (2 on St. Louis and 1 on Detroit). Detroit outshot St. Louis in the first period, 10-6. Second Period Jamal Mayers scored the first goal of the game 7:32 into the second period with even strength to put the Blues on the board first. With a little under five minutes left in the second period, Mikael Samuelsson beat Blues goaltender, Curtis Sanford, by tipping in a pass from Jiri Fischer. In the second period, the Wings were able to successfully kill three penalties including a near minute long 5-on-3 opportunity for the Blues. Both teams had 11 shots on their opponent's net in the second period. Third Period Seven minutes into the third, Mike Sillinger scored the Blues' second goal of the night. A minute and forty-six seconds later, Dough Weight beat Manny Legace on the power play. The Blues had two penalties in this period and the Wings were not able to convert on the power play. With 52 seconds left in the game, Brendan Shanahan scored on a pass from Henrik Zetterberg to put the Wings within one goal. He then received a penalty (for charging) diminishing any chance the Wings had to tie the game up. Both the Wings and Blues had 13 shots apiece in the third period. Overall The Wings outshot the Blues, 34-30, but were unable to convert on six power play opportunities. Blues goalie Sanford made 32 saves to lead the team to a victory over the Wings. Mike Babcock: "We got ourselves behind the eight ball and couldn't scramble back...Everybody has a tough schedule, there's no point in making excuses for having no energy. We needed to win this game...We weren't sharp...Manny gave us an opportunity on the 5-on-3, but we failed [him]. We got to find some energy [before the game versus Nashville]." Personal Thoughts While I was bummed that the Wings lost to the likes of Vancouver and Calgary, I am completely frustrated with the Wings' performances against the Oilers and Blues. After being up 3-1 over Edmonton at the end of the second period, the game ended in a Wings OT loss. I figured that the Wings would want to redeem themselves and defeat an opponent that we have handily beat thus far the season. However, this was not the case. I'm not going to panic, but we really needed to win tonight and we couldn't even beat the Blues. Links Recap Boxscore Play by Play